Central Studio-office space at former Graphisches Zentrum

Dear Reader,

 

As most of you might know, TSPA moved offices last May to the Grafisches Zentrum in Mitte/Kreuzberg. We love the space and are very happy here, and now look for co-renters to split the roughly 400 m².  We would love the space to become a cluster of planners, thinkers and designers in the creative/urban/architecture/sustainability field.

 

If you or your office  are currently searching for a beautiful yet functional space in the vibrant Kreuzberg, more details are below:

 

Photos and Plans

 

Basics

  • Spacious, bright and elegant space with 6 m+ high ceilings in a former print factory in Mitte/Kreuzberg
  • Available from December 2022. Later moving dates are possible, up to June 2023
  • Address: Charlottenstrasse 2, 10969 Kreuzberg
  • Public transport connection: 2 min away from U-Bahn Kochstraße and M29 bus line
  • 100 m² to 300 m² are available, depending on space needs. The overall space is ±400 m². If you need less space, we also rent out a few individual tables, see here

 

Amenities 

  • Street facing ground floor access, with unrestricted 24/7 access to the space
  • Luxurious full featured show kitchen (yes, also has red and white wine fridges) and spacious meeting area ready to impress clients
  • We are in the process of arranging in-house catering with top class Mexican food courtesy of Tacokween.
  • All the other standards (bathrooms, storage etc). In the neighbourhood, there is a wide variety of restaurants and coffee shops around. Also in the office: Many plants.

 

Infrastructure & service

We have already arranged for everything an office needs to run smoothly:

  • high speed glass fibre internet, VOIP phone service
  • weekly cleaning service
  • theft insurance, including electronics
  • Parking for bikes and cars
  • Pro A3 colour printer
  • We would like to decide on additional infrastructure we might want together with you

 

Price

  • 21.74 eur/m² net (excl. VAT) , 25.87 eur/m² brut (incl. VAT) , with ancillary costs 29.75 €/m²
  • Additional services — cleaning, internet, phone, printer, coffee — can be shared depending on demand.

 

Community

You’ll share the space with some of the most interesting firms in urban development and design in Europe.

  • TSPA is an international urban planning and design firm that develops sustainable urban systems for a changing world.
  • Clurb develops software for managing cities better.

 

Visit us and have a look

  • Visits at Charlottenstr. 2 | 10969 Berlin 
  • Questions and appointments via Aurelija at: 

📧 office@tspa.eu 

☎️ +49 30 57 70 63 492

 

TSPA sucht eher früher als später eine/n Mitarbeiter*in/Praktikanten*innen

TSPA ist ein internationales Stadtplanungs- und Designbüro, das nachhaltige urbane Systeme für eine Welt im Wandel entwickelt.

Unsere Aufgabe ist es, Umgebungen zu schaffen, die Ressourcen besser nutzen, die Artenvielfalt erhalten und eine hervorragende Lebensqualität bieten – für uns und künftige Generationen.

Unser Team mit Sitz in Berlin, Deutschland, besteht aus talentierten Stadtplanern, Architekten, Stadt Forschern, Ingenieuren, Geodaten- und Kommunikationsexperten aus acht Nationen, die in einer offenen Kooperationsstruktur zusammenarbeiten. Unsere Projekte reichen von der Regionalentwicklung bis zur Stadtplanung, vom Quartiersdesign bis zur Ortsgestaltung.

Wir suchen:

  • Eine Berufsanfängerin oder einen Berufsanfänger mit muttersprachlichen Deutschkenntnissen (oder äquivalent) in Wort und Schrift, dazu guten Englischkenntnissen 
  • Studium der Stadtplanung, des Städtebaus, der Architektur, Geographie, oder vergleichbar. 
  • Kenntnisse im Umgang mit GIS, Rhino, Adobe Package 
  • Generelle Kenntnisse der Stadtentwicklungsprozesse in Deutschland 
  • Vorzugsweise Wohnsitz in Berlin 
  • tspa office 3
  • tspa-office space (1)
  • tspa-office space (2)

JOIN OUR CO-WORKING SPACE

Are you currently searching for a beautiful yet functional co-working space in vibrant Mitte/Kreuzberg?

We’re renting out 1-6 tables in our spacious and lush office in Charlottenstraße 2, located in Graphisches Zentrum near Checkpoint Charlie. The idea is to start a creative cluster of the best creatives, planners, thinkers and designers – in the urbanism and sustainability space, but also in general!

The desks are available from now on, but the rent from a later date is possible as well. We are  offering large tables, enough space to respect social distancing, and a friendly environment with driven and kind people.

Location

    • Charlottenstrasse 2, 10969 Kreuzberg;
    • easy access –  just 2 min away from U-Bahn Kochstraße station;
    • wide range of restaurants and coffee shops  around, reachable in couple of minutes (Charlotte 2, Chupenga, betahaus and many more);
    • Besselpark is just a few steps away;

Space

    • ±400 m² total space and 100 m² shared space;
    • fully set up work space that includes a large desk (approx. 10 sqm of workspace per person) comfortable chair and other gadgets;
    • shelf space, in case you might need to store things;
    • very bright, spacious room. Also, a lot of space for you plans or posters to be pinned up at the wall;
    • large, dedicated areas for sketching;
    • extensive library of architecture and urban planning books;
    • big kitchen with espresso machine, fridge, microwave and hotplate. Also it’s perfect for a chat or meetings;
    • no carpets;
    • many plants!

 

Infrastructure & service

    • unrestricted 24/7 access to the space;
    • free internet (super fast speed with glass fibre);
    • weekly cleaning service;
    • theft insurance, includes all electronics, laptops etc.;
    • beautiful and simple design tables, with famous Eiermann frames;
    • space to park your bike or car;
    • ground floor and easy access.

Price

The monthly rent per desk is 300 euros – internet, table, chair, shelf space, keys, cleaning service, storage space and kitchen included in the price. In case you would like to rent more than one desk – the price can be adjusted accordingly.

 

People
You’ll share the space with a bunch of young urban planners / architects / engineers from all over the world and our co-worker office LABELS (Cee Cee Creative)

Come visit us at Charlottenstr. 2 | 10969 Berlin and take a look yourself, or reach out with the questions to Aurelija reachable via:

📧 office@tspa.eu
☎️ +49 30 57 70 63 492

Community needs oriented, solar energy powered hubs in rural Rwanda

Earlier this year TSPA started an exciting partnership with The Pulse and Solarkiosks Solutions.

These two Berlin Based companies, together with many other experts, are working towards an inspiring goal to to implement and operate a network of solar-powered rural centers in Rwanda. Each of the E-HUBB will combine fully integrated solar energy systems, retail and whole shops,  stores and offices, tailored to the specific needs of local entrepreneurs or NGOs and many more. TSPA joined this network of experts as a technical advisor for the spatial and architectural concept development as well as integration with the surrounding  urban settlements.

The very first pilot test – The Pulse center is soon to be operating in the first location in Rwanda. Follow us to learn more.

 

Read more about the Pulse centers here.

 

 

New headquarters: Charlottenstrasse 2

We are back in Kreuzberg!

We moved again and this time for real.

Find us at Charlottenstraße 2 where, together with LABELS (Cee Cee Creative), we will create a space for creativity the way we love to do it: with plants and sketches.

We will share more updates of this amazing space where we would love for you to come and say hi!
#tspa #office #urbanplanning #berlin

Managing a planning firm as a Teal Organisation. This is what we learned

1. The Company is growing, great! Right. Right? Right??

Thomas Stellmach, urbanist and founder of TSPA, realised two years ago that his firm, and life, had to change. The situation didn’t look bad: International city planning projects were underway, academia and international organisations invited TSPA for conferences and lectures. Yet tension was high and constant, mistakes happened, plus the permanent anxiety that there is always more to be done.

Organisational aspects

Why was that? Too much was dependent on Thomas himself. Clients wanted to talk to him directly, decisions had to be taken. Various attempts to outsource or delegate had failed due to decreased quality in results. It was time to transition from an assisted one-person show to a larger structure. Was it time to build a pyramid-shaped org chart?

Mycelium Rhizome, 2009 Pencil on paper 120 x 240 cm. Collection of the artist Represented by Galerie Dusseldorf

Mycelium Rhizome, 2009 Pencil on paper 120 x 240 cm. Collection of the artist Represented by Galerie Dusseldorf

Trust

A future that may not come: lessons on green technologies that should save the world 

This is an overview of the presentation Filippo Imberti made for the Nobel Fest event last week. He participated in the open dialogue about the global practices, issues and changing trends is essential in achieving well-functioning and liveable environments.

This overview looks at the role of cities in carbon emissions, and potential solutions:

Thomas Stellmach visiting professor at BTU Cottbus-Senftenberg

We are happy to announce that TSPA’s founder and director, Thomas Stellmach, is starting a new position as Visiting Professor at Brandenburgische Technische Universität Cottbus-Senftenberg.

Together with Julia Binder, Thomas will take part of the Urban Design and Urban Studies chair in the Faculty of Architecture, Civil Engineering and Urban Planning.

TSPA in Kocaeli YPP Workshop, ‘Change for Resilience. Resilience for Change’

Last March, our colleague Alessandra Sammartino was one of the coordinators of the Kocaeli YPP Workshop, ‘Change for Resilience. Resilience for Change’ – organized by ISOCARP Institute, Centre for Urban Excellence in collaboration with Kocaeli Metropolitan Municipality  and Marmara Municipalities Union.
The workshop, held in Kocaeli, Turkey, included the participation of 25 talented young professionals from 15 countries from all over the world, from Colombia to Mongolia, from Botswana to Germany. Participants discussed the concept of resilience through a transformation of urban public space, which can become a critical tool for a resilient city and society.
TSPA. Masterplan

Proposal for Ecocity in Sakhalin is awarded with the 3rd place

We are excited to share that our proposal for an international competition “Ecopolis. Concept for a new city in the Sakhalin region” was awarded with 3rd prize.
 
Together with Wowhaus , Nomura Research Institute , and the Scientific Research Institute of Ecology and Sustainable Management of Natural Resources, TSPA developed a concept for a new city model that ensures a transformation of economic growth, green energy integration and qualitative living.
Congratulations to our excellent team and partners!
 
Competition for Ecopolis proposal was organized by Center Agency, Sakhalin Region Development Corporation and the Government of Sakhalin Region. In total, five team developed a proposal for a new city in the southern part of the island.
 
Learn more about the project in the link below:

Density and mixed-use: Innovative approaches to redensification in German and American cities

Innovative, diverse, livable, and sustainable is how we want our cities to grow; this requires a sustainable and resilient redensification strategy. The project “Density & Mixed-Use: Innovative Approaches to Redensification in German and American Cities” aims to support networks between German and U.S. municipalities to explore (new) tools in both countries for building density.

The Project is part of the international exchange network “Dialogues for Urban Change” which aims to strengthen international exchange and promote international learning networks in urban development. The format consists of a total of three networks: between Germany and the USA, South Africa and Ukraine respectively. These networks, each dealing with a different thematic focus, encompass the city and national levels as well as city associations and aim to improve urban development approaches in the participating countries.

Strategy for public toilets: Data-driven planning for people centred smart cities.

A smart city is not only a city full of screens and self-driving cars. It is a city that employs data to better allocate resources, cover needs, and make places more accessible for everyone. Public toilets are the best example of how using data helps to design people-centered smart cities.

The European Commission defines a smart city as a place where traditional networks and services are made more efficient with digital solutions for the benefit of its inhabitants and business. In the same notion, TSPA has developed two city-wide concepts for Berlin and Düsseldorf that provide a demand-oriented supply of public toilets. To do so, we identified priority locations based on geodata and a distance ratio allocating the city resources in the best possible way.

The approach is integrative for the objectives of the idea, not only quantitatively but also qualitatively. We accompanied city policies with the involvement of interest groups and parts of the city’s administration. To provide a detailed strategy we used a wide range of data provided by public and private authorities, analysed basic human behaviour patterns, and compared with other cities to develop a sustainable concept. We considered data such as existing facilities within a certain range, people densities, tourism patterns, and many others. Only the combination of these tools and variables can help to elaborate a holistic strategy. As a result, the number of publicly accessible toilets will be increased to 200 locations in Düsseldorf and 257 in Berlin.

Public Toilets might be overlooked as part of the backbone of a city’s infrastructure, but that doesn’t mean that it is of great importance for its inhabitants and visitors. Big data analysis and cross-sector comparison are tools that improve the provision of such a basic service.

The provision of public toilets is a realistic way of thinking about how cities can be smart because it contributes significantly to the quality and accessibility of a city’s public space. It influences how we move around in the city and whether restrictions arise for some groups of people. Making the cities more interactive and responsive, safer public spaces, and meeting the needs of an aging population.

We are aware that there are a lot of things to improve when it comes to public toilets. How to achieve gender equality in its provision? How to keep it functional and accessible for everyone? How can these be safe without displacing vulnerable populations of public space?

We might not have all the answers, for one it is clear that intelligently chosen locations can at least help to tackle the issue of unequal spatial distribution or unmet capacity. The data-driven planning here steps as the main pillar.

Structural plans of Mozambique received the Sustainable Cities And Human Settlements Award

We are honoured and very thankful to receive the Global Human Settlements Award on Planning and Design as part of the Sustainable Cities And Human Settlements Awards.  We feel happy to have recognized this important effort to tackle contemporary cities’ issues, such as rapid urbanisation and sustainable development planning.

Nature Based Solutions in the context of Data-Driven Urbanism

Last Week, Thomas Stellmach presented in the Annual National Planning Conference Highlights in Chengdu the presentation Nature-Based Solutions in the context of Data-Driven Urbanism invited by Isocarp. We parted from two main premises:

Climate hazards around the world during 2021

With all its effects, climate change is so familiar, from flooding, heat waves, melting polar caps caused by the man-made transformation of our surroundings. It has become the number one issue of our time. While we face this challenge, we see another big change happening, the shift towards big data and its automated analysis, affecting all realms of our life.

What does this mean for sustainable urban development?

Berlin City Strategy Framework moves towards its implementation

This July the Berlin’s Strategic Smart City Framework  was handed over to the Senate for its operationalisation and implementation phases, the framework is part of the “Smart Cities Model Projects,” supported by the Federal Ministry of Interior as part of Berlin City’s effort towards a Smart City Strategy.

Workshop at Creative Bureaucracy Festival

Thomas Stellmach will hold a workshop about Smart City Governance for Future

Can bureaucracy be creative and innovative?? Often outdated structures leave no space to adopt change. The Creative Bureaucracy Festival creates a space to discuss current struggles and point out new directions.

“The Creative Bureaucracy Festival celebrates outstanding innovation in the public sector and its contribution to a better, more sustainable, and more just world. It brings together bureaucrats and their allies – those who, at all levels of government, fight for the common good and make a difference.”

TSPA’s founder, Thomas Stellmach, who is actively involved in the Smart City Strategy for Berlin development as an Advisory Board member, will hold today at 16:00 a workshop about Smart City Governance for Future.

Discussion panel at IAA Mobility Conference

We are excited to share that Thomas Stellmach is one of the panelists discussing “How infrastructure and design shape the future of our spaces” in the IAA MOBILITY Conference, find him tomorrow Wednesday 8th of August at 15:00 in the Vision stage.

The discussion, set around exploring how design reacts to changing environments, will be hosted by Chris Bangle and count with the participation of Wayne Burgess, Vice-president of Design in Ola ElectricHolger Hampf the President of Designworks, A BMW Group Company, and Thomas Stellmach founder and director of TSPA, Making Cities.

They will discuss who decides how we will move in our cities in the future – industry, algorithms, governments – and how we can turn mobility systems into better cities.

Structural Plans for Mozambican Towns awarded in the APA ID International Planning Excellence Awards

We are very happy to share that our project Structural Plans for Mozambican Towns won the Advancing Social Equity Award of the American Planning Association International Planning Excellence Awards. Together with the Liberia Municipal Water Project and the Thompson & Grace Medical City Master Plan in Nigeria, our proposal was considered to be innovative and impactful.

Our colleague Filippo presented the project in a webinar together with the 2020 and 2021 winners with projects from Africa and Latin America.

The American Planning Association provides leadership in development of vital communities for all by advocating planning excellence, promoting education and resident empowerment.

Thomas Stellmach interviewed in Al Jazeera reportage “Berlin: unapologetically rebel”

More than 20 years after the reunification, what shapes Berlin today?

The news broadcaster Al Jazeera interviewed three Berliners, and one is our founder Thomas Stellmach, who experienced city changes in the post-wall ’90s and now understands current ongoing processes such as gentrification and recognises the importance of a vision for Berlin and Brandenburg’s future development.

We were delighted to be considered as a valuable source to understand and reflect on the city.

TSPA one of five teams selected to compete and design the architectural and urban development concept for the new Ecopolis in Sakhalin, Russia

TSPA was selected as part of the 5 international teams that will design an architectural and urban development concept in the Open International Competition for the new Ecopolis in Sakhalin, Russia.
Together with Wowhaus, Nomura Research Institute, and the Scientific Research Institute of Ecology and Sustainable Management of Natural Resources, TSPA will develop a concept for a new city model that will bring a “qualitative transformation of the regional economy, its modernization, and diversification, the development of green energy, as well as the creation of a technology incubator and new industries”.

TSPA moved!

Since the beginning of July we relocated our office space. Together with our beloved plants and sketches we moved to the industrial side of the district of Charlottenburg.

You can now find us at
Quedlinburger Str. 11
10589 Berlin
Germany

Feel free to send us recommendations about the area or come and visit us for a coffee!

Greentech festival

City Scan powered by TSPA participated at the Greentech Festival

Earlier this year, TSPA team started a new project – CityScan. An initiative for data-driven urbanism. We presented its first analysis at the Greentech Festival where we shared how the principles of sustainable urban planning combined with data can support the future of mobility planning.

How does City Scan approaches data driven urbanism?

Thomas Stellmach took part in the opening of Arch Moscow 2021

Today Thomas Stellmach took part of the XXVI International Exhibition of Architecture and Design Arch Moscow 2021.

In a hybrid conversation (presence and zoom call) he exchanged points on the meaning of future mobility for urban development for Moscow.

Invited by Spectrum, TSPA shared the floor with participants from Arch Bureau «Strelka» (Russia), UN-Studio (Netherlands) and Atelier PRO (Netherlands).

“The City as a Renewable resource” TSPA’s intervention in the Masterclass at the University of Venice

Last Friday March 26th, Thomas Stellmach took part of the discussion in the Masterclass The City as a Renewable Resource in the session Project, organised by the University of Venice.

After the presentations by Paola Viganò and Günter Vogt, Thomas Stellmach shared the virtual floor with the speakers, Aristide Athanassiadis and Margherita Manfra for a discussion.

The Masterclass explored the unsustainable and unfeasible models of urban growth, expansion and consumption contrasted with a paradigm shift that proposes the role of urban space as a renewable resource. It interprets the city-territory as a stratification of actions, practices, projects and policies.

Thomas Stellmach started by presenting the bridge between global challenges, such as rapid population growth, resource consumption and climate change, and the added layer of “the unexpected” when it comes to city planning. Exemplifying with his work together with UN-Habitat, he concluded that we are still looking at the city as an answer to complex social problems. He considered that the nuance is to shape the city in a way that it becomes renewable is the way urbanisation is developed.

Areal view of the project site. TSPA

Project Campus Winnenden is shortlisted proposal for IBA’27

Campus Winnenden – Proposal for the Internationale Bauausstellung 2027 (IBA’27). Winnenden Urban Neighbourhood

This year TSPA started with an exciting task: we developed a project proposal for the International Building Exhibition for Stuttgart region -IBA’27. Our project “Campus Winnenden” has been shortlisted among the selected projects.

IBA’27 StadtRegion Stuttgart, aims to make the Stuttgart Region a more liveable, sustainable place.

Winnenden Urban Neighborhood, is one of the IBA’27 locations. Winnenden municipal authorities and the International Building Exhibition 2027 StadtRegion Stuttgart (IBA’27) are looking for suggestions for a mixed-use neighbourhood of the future.

We embraced one of the driving questions of the Bauwelt Congress 2016 on the productive city: “What do architects and planners need to build to make the mixed city a reality – how do we achieve a city for living, dwelling and working in which the functional separation of these areas is removed?”

Recommendations for sustainable urbanization in Africa – Thomas Stellmach in the Bundestag

“In my opinion, it is not expedient to try to stop urbanization in Africa. On the contrary, the focus should be on intervening in a steering manner to make it as sustainable as possible.”

–  Thomas Stellmach at the German Bundestag in late December, where he gave recommendations in the Committee on Economic Cooperation and Development regarding sustainable urbanisation.

Public Hearing in the Committee on Economic Cooperation and Development of the German Bundestag

There is exciting news: Today, Thomas Stellmach has been invited as an expert to a public hearing in the Committee on Economic Cooperation and Development of the German Bundestag.

Thomas Stellmach presented “Digitisation, space and society” in ‘Smart City Berlin meets Smart Country Brandenburg’

Thomas Stellmach was invited to the’ Smart City Berlin meets Smart Country Brandenburg‘ an event from Smart City Berlin.
Together with companies and networks, partners from the districts, counties and independent cities, our founder is taking part of the meet-up to exchange and deepen cross-border aspects.
Thomas will present and discuss the topic of Digitisation, space and society.

TSPA comes back to Russia. Strogino River Embankment Design Competition

Strogino River Embankment Design Competition, organised by Moscow City Architecture Committee, is focused on developing the right bank of the River Moskva in the Strogino district.

TSPA, together with our partners WOWHAUS, was selected to take a part in the next competition round.

Strogino River Embankment Design Competition, organised by Moscow City Architecture Committee, is focused on developing the right bank of the River Moskva in the Strogino district.

We are excited to come back to Russia where we have developed really interesting projects in the past.

Three work places available at Aquabutze coworking space

We’re renting out three table spaces in our beautiful shared office at Moritzplatz at Aquacarree above Ritter Butzke.

They are available immediately but also a later date is possible.

Price per desk per month 248,- EURO (USt/VAT included)

Wide tables and enough space to respect social distancing

What you get:

Wrapping up Blankenburger Süden project

Last October we were part of the final presentation for the city extension of Berlin in Blankenburger Süden, for which our participation has come to an end. We look back into some of the key moments of this project and how it enriched us.

A year earlier, in October 2019 we were selected together with our partners from B+B and joined the cooperative workshop with the “Wild Card” this allowed us to experiment and try bold options for visualisation like building a model of the whole development area.

Exhibition ‘Unfinished Metropolis. 100 years of urban development for (Greater) Berlin’ opening night

A 100 years ago today Berlin became Greater Berlin and a giant city emerged increasing its territory from 66 to 878 square kilometres, and increasing its population form 1.9 to approximately 3.9 million inhabitants.

TSPA and our partners Fabulism had the pleasure attend the opening event of the anniversary exhibition “Unfinished Metropolis: 100 Years of Urban Development for Greater Berlin” as one of the 5 awarded proposals which reflected on the city’s possibilities for 2070.

The exhibition, focused on the way living, working, traffic, leisure and recreation have unfolded through history, presents new ideas on the exemplary locations for future development.

You can now visit and see our proposal at Kronprinzenpalais, Unter den Linden 3, 10117 Berlin from October1st and until 3rd of January.

To learn more about the exhibition, visit the website below:

https://unvollendete-metropole.de

Project ‘Landscape of Differences’ published in monograph ‘Unfinished Metropolis’

On October 1st, to mark the anniversary of establishment of Greater Berlin, Architekten- und Ingenieurverein zu Berlin-Brandenburg e. V. (AIV), together with Harald Bodenschatz, Benedikt Goebel, Christina Gräwe, Peter Lemburg, Marcus Nitschke, Wolfgang Schuster have prepared an exciting monographs “Unfinished Metropolis” While first volume presents history of 100 years of urban planning for Greater Berlin the second book contains entries from International Urban Planning Competition for Berlin-Brandenburg 2070. We are excited to have a sneak preview, as our latest project Landscape of Differences is among winning projects.

Find out more in the link below: https://dom-publishers.com/collections/monographs/products/unfinished-metropolis

Thomas Stellmach member of the Smart City Strategy Advisory Board with the Mayor of Berlin

Our founder and director Thomas Stellmach joined as a member of the advisory board set up by Mayor of Berlin, Michael Müller, to accompany the strategy development supported by the Federal Ministry of the Interior within the framework of the Smart City Call. 

We are honoured to be part of a process with other 15 members from the city’s science, business and administration, and recognise this exercise as “a first step towards involving the urban community in the future development of digital infrastructure and exemplary pilot projects”. 

TSPA’s Humboldt Foundation fellow researcher presents in TEDx event: Cooperation in urban development

Cooperation is a way to cope with complex urban issues. As a Humboldt Foundation and guest researcher at TSPA  Aleksandra Katasonova will present some of her results exploring forms and effects of cooperation in urban development.

Join her in the online Tedx event next Tuesday 29th of September at 11am.
Register here: https://tedxkanzlerpark.online/…

Nature comes first in the south of Blankenburg!

Earlier this year, TSPA together with our landscape architecture partner B+B finalised the framework planning for the development of Blankenburger Süden. And since this week the results of the framework plan development for the south of Blankenburg are visible to the public on the website of the Berlin Senate Department for Urban Development and Housing.

As the largest extension of the city Berlin with the aim of accommodate the urban growth, it also gave us a chance to reflect on the influence of a planning project to the surrounding area and to propose a solution to balance between building construction and the existing nature. you can  vote for our project! Through this online survey and a participation platform, questions can be asked and comments can be left .

Berlin-Brandenburg 2070 Competition Awards

We are very happy to announce that TSPA was awarded amongst the best projects in the International Urban Design Ideas Competition for the future of Berlin-Brandenburg 2070. The project “Landscape of Differences” developed with Fabulism office was selected as 4th place winner amongst 55 international participants by the Architects and Engineers Association of Berlin-Brandenburg. The competition theme marks the 100 years anniversary of greater Berlin. TSPA feels honoured to be selected as it is an exciting moment for contributions to the vision of our future cities and regions. The results of the competition will be presented in the exhibition “Unfinished Metropolis” in the Kronprinzenpalais from October on. You can find more information and details on the homepage of the Urban Design Ideas Competition.

 

TSPA opens its doors for the Day of Architecture

Last Saturday June 27th TSPA opened its doors for the Tag der Architektur (Day of Architecture) organised by the Architecture Chamber.
After a convivial with drinks, our team presented some of our work and held a Q&A session.

Here are some snapshots of the event.

Thanks for everyone who joined us, we look forward to see you next year.

Open Doors Event – Day of Architecture 2020

This 27th of June TSPA will participate in the Day of Architecture with an open office! Come and join us to hear more about or projects and exchange points of view. We will present our work and hold a session of Q&A followed by a convivial with drinks.

The event orgnaised by the Architecture Chamber will follow the existing hygiene regulations which include the registration of visitors.
For more information on how to register and review the map with all the participating projects, objects, open spaces in Berlin click here: https://www.ak-berlin.de/baukultur/tag-der-architektur/tag-der-architektur-2020.html

 

Another Academy Berlin Blog III: How to work together instead of against each other in city-making?

It’s common for city actors to compete for the same flows, instead, could there be a model towards a joint action aiming for solutions that would benefit everyone? This is the third post of the series about cooperation in city-making which describes insights learned from the Berlin-based grassroots initiatives. We will continue to observe city-making practice from different angles within Autumn Another Academy Berlin.

Authored by our guest researcher Aleksandra Katasonova. 

Work platforms: Open source remote communication and basic office organisation strategies

This is the fourth publication of the series “From work desks to work platforms” in which we share the strategies and tools that have helped us doing remote-work even before the Coronavirus Pandemic. Here we present two out of nine tools,Remote communication and basic office arrangement.

5. Keeping the Communication Going

Video and Audio Conferencing, Screen Sharing, Chat and direct Exchange: Riot & Jitsi

Work platforms: Remote Presentations, Data Collection and Analysis

This is the third publication of the series “From work desks to work platforms” in which we share the strategies and tools that have helped us doing remote-work even before the Coronavirus Pandemic. Here we present two out of nine tools, remote presentations, data collection and data analysis.

3. Showing Off: Presentations

Presentations on Site and Remotely: Slides / Powerpoint / Keynote

 What we needed

As opposed to the previous chapter, that dealt with internal presentation, here we talk about external presentations — be it to a client or a lecture at a conference. We searched for a tool that lets develop presentations quickly, intuitively and work simultaneously with external collaborators. Another essential demands are easily grant access editing rights and offline working mode.

What we picked, and why

Work Platforms: Tools for Local and Remote File Sharing, Co-creating Documents and Discussing Ideas

This is the second publication of the series “From work desks to work platforms” in which we share the strategies and tools that we have used doing remote-work even before the Coronavirus Pandemic. Here we present two of the nine tools we use. In the next posts we will share more.

III. The Tools

1. Enabling Team Work: Local and Remote File Sharing

File Sync, File Sharing, File Versioning: Dropbox

Autumn Academy Berlin Blog II: Cooperation, Self-organization, Self-governing

This is the second post of a series exploring how different city actors could act together towards a good city in the organization of an Autumn Academy in Berlin. Follow us for more updates.

Issues that modern cities are facing today are too big and complex for one actor or one sector to effectively manage. New capabilities are needed to help people think and act differently to adapt to rapid change. At present, across Europe city residents are engaged and motivated to demonstrate their ability in creating innovative solutions for important social issues. In this context cooperation between diverse partners from public, private, and community- based organizations is needed to foster equal footing to impact the city. Working together actors could empower each other with knowledge and expertise creating a better city.

From Work Desks to Work Platforms

This is the first publication of a series in which we will share the strategies and tools that have worked for us in our experience with remote working. The next publications will which tools we use and how we use them.


How to work remotely without dropping the pencil.

Authors: Aleksandra Katasonova, Filippo Imberti, Thomas Stellmach

Graphics: Amr Elsayed

This document describes the remote work tool kit we use at TSPA. It is specifically the tools that work best for us (you’ll find some links to broader collections of solutions at the end of the text).

An experimental period: The Dusseldorf project as a case study

The Coronavirus pandemic is omnipresent in our society, where ‘social distancing’ neglects our everyday’s life and our common behaviour patterns. Schools and shops are closing, we all work from home and visit neither family nor friends. This is a challenge, as social interaction and discussion is key for the urban planning domain since local knowledge and participation have a huge impact on the process and the outcomes of a project. 

Together with Zebralog, we were facing this issue and asked ourselves the following questions:

  • How could we enable stakeholders to give us feedback and input in our current projects without a ‘face to face’ interaction? 
  • Which are the outcomes of a remote format? 
  • Can these formats act as a role model with the goal to implement them in future projects?

Autumn Academy Berlin: How Will We Act Together?

In June 2019 the appointed Curator of the 17th Venice Architecture Biennale Hashim Sarkis introduced the theme of the next year’s event “How will we live together?” where architects were invited to think of a new spatial contract in the context of widening political divides and growing economic inequalities. Today, the main premise remains the same, yet the context now involves the consequences of a pandemic. So we at TSPA now ask ourselves “How Will We Act Together?” This is a relevant moment to think of the role of cooperation, self-organization and knowledge exchange to deal with long term crises.

TSPA goes on a team retreat

With an aim to discuss the core composition of TSPA, our team went on a small trip to Coconat space a “workation retreat”. In this co-working space we got to workshop our ideas on values, goals, vision, structure and organisation for the future of our company.

This was a very valuable opportunity for us to get to know each other as a team and decide where to direct our energies in the future. With many recent additions we feel optimistic and happy to be part of a group filled with talented, smart and friendly people.

Here are some snapshots of how it went:

 

We chose a location in the countryside close to Berlin.

Toilet provision in Düsseldorf: district needs in a city wide strategy.

Public toilets in a city are relevant since they tackle a basic need. Everyone in a city, visitors, inhabitants, young and old will eventually have to use a restroom.

Currently, TSPA works together with Zebralog in the provision of a city-wide strategy for the provision of toilets in the city of Düsseldorf. This ongoing project has given us insight into the real impact of public toilets on the city and its residents and has taught us a range of new skills and methods for dealing with a large amount of unstructured data from various stakeholders.

To explain this in detail, our colleague Jan Cyganski shared some insights and learning outcomes in an interview.

The current stage of the project

So far, we finished the analysis of the existing toilets. We did a lot of GIS analysis using data from the city, such as toilet facilities and site visits. At this phase, the participation was already essential.

Data collection process

In the data collection, it was TSPA, different departments of the city -like the social department, the gardening department, the urban planning department, traffic department- and the district’s representatives who gave their input on missing locations.

We all delivered the inputs that our partners Zebralog managed, processed, and organised and we prepared the output.

  • Overview of the meeting
  • Irakli Mtskhvetadze, Gvantsa Nikolaishvili and Thomas Stellmach
  • Franziska Schreiber and Evandro Holz
  • Thomas Stellmach
  • Revaz Sokhadze, Chairman of Urban Planning and Urban Commission of Tbilisi City Council and Otar Grigolia, Chairman of Financial-Budget and Property Management Commission
  • Evan Zhorzholiani, Chairman of Legal Issues and Human Rights Commission
  • TSPA capacity building team.
  • Irakli Mtskhvetadze and Gvantsa Nikolaishvili
  • Screenshot 2020-02-06 at 09.26.10

TSPA experts visit Tbilisi City Council

TSPA team members, Thomas Stellmach, Franziska Schreiber and Evandro Holz are currently in Tbilisi, Georgia holding meetings with various members of the City Council, learning from the  challenges and opportunities of the local government and sharing expert knowledge.

TSPA Newsletter: 20 out of 20

Greetings from TSPA!

We are very happy to start the end of the decade busy with very exciting projects and a growing team. We started this year feeling  20/20.

Whether in Germany or overseas TSPA explored all of its capacities building climate resiliency, thinking of sustainable solutions, designing the neighbourhoods of the future and planning for all. We are looking forward to continue doing so in 2020.

Students of HPI School of Design Thinking visit TSPA

On December 6th five students of the HPI School of Design Thinking in Potsdam visited our office in Kreuzberg.

Consortium team with the Municipality in Wonosobo

Indonesia Ecodistrict Programme

Exciting updates about the TSPA Indonesian adventure!

Recently, part of our team flew from Berlin all the way to Indonesia to carry on another step of the inclusive process that is having place in the amazing context of Java Island. The ambitious goal is working together, with international partners and local experts, to define sustainable and shared ways to deal with the multiple issues that the Indonesian cities are facing. Currently, back in Berlin, we are finalising the outputs of the path started on field, paving the way for the future phases. But, let’s take a step back…

  • Van Hove proclamation
  • 8317e83f-2ac3-4c32-8374-6c6e80e5f0c9
  • Screenshot 2019-12-06 at 09.40.16
  • Screenshot 2019-12-06 at 09.50.49
  • Screenshot 2019-12-06 at 10.00.35
  • Screenshot 2019-12-06 at 10.00.45
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VAN HOVE AWARD 2019 FOR TSPA INTERN SOPHIE LEEMANS

TSPA architecture intern Sophie has won the Van Hove Award with her graduation “Adaptive architecture and flood permitting cities – urban flooding as incentive for positive incremental change”. The prize is awarded by the UPA-BUA (Royal Professional Union of Architects in Belgium) to a graduating design and is open to all students who obtain a degree in architecture or architecture-engineering at a Belgian faculty of architecture, during the academic year of the prize. The proclamation took place at the Architects’ House in Brussels on November 20.

Rapid planning workshop for Blankenburger Süden

Last week our team joined Bureau B+B in Amsterdam for an intensive design workshop.
Together, we developed the concept of our design proposal for Blankenburger Süden, a 120 hectares urban development on the north edge of Berlin.
The results of our collaboration provided ideas and images to develop a new structural and utilisation concept for the largest urban expansion site in the city.

Follow us on our social  media for further updates!

And stay updated about our work in our social media:
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Berlin’s largest extension site: TSPA & B+B selected for Blankenburger Süden process

TSPA together with B+B has been selected as one of the teams that will form part of the cooperative workshop process in the development of Blankenburger Süden, Berlin largest urban expansion site. Starting in autumn 2019 and continuing until spring 2020,  four teams will develop as many different test designs as possible for the planned new city district. The resulting ideas and images will be used to develop a new structural and utilisation concept (so-called “Alternative D”) for the south of Blankenburg.

Our team is happy to be part of a cooperative workshop process in which teams create the test designs simultaneously. The workshop process is the third building block of the so-called laboratory phase. The first two building blocks of the laboratory phase are “Sharpening key objectives” and “Clarifying framework settings”.

The area to which the sketches will be tested is of around 150 hectares. It extends from the former location of the Fachhochschule für Technik und Wirtschaft (FHTW) in the north to the approx. 90 ha core area – formerly a Rieselfeld, today arable land – to the Heinersdorf industrial estate in the south. In addition, the test designs will focus on the connection to the neighbouring neighbourhoods.

Some of the topics we will be discussing critically and creatively are: uses and functions, urban planning, open spaces and ecology, mobility and transport, and interdependencies with the neighbourhoods.

We are very happy to exchange ideas in this workshop with our salted collegues:

YelowZ
bgmr Landschaftsarchitekten
UmbauStadt
MLA+
Fugmann Janotta und Partner
CITYFOERSTER
Felixx Landscape  

Context

The south of Blankenburger Süden development is a response to the housing shortage in the state of Berlin located in what is still considered “a phantom” of green grounds and one of Pankow’s most rural regions. The 90 hectare core area projects to accommodate 5,000 to 6,000 apartments.

“Four teams of planners with a focus on urban development and landscape architecture will take part in the cooperative, urban planning workshop procedure. These four teams were selected via an EU-wide award procedure” explains Katrin Dietl, spokeswoman for the Senate Department for Urban Development (Schubert, 2019;Berliner Morgenpost).

In response to the housing shortage in the state of Berlin, the last legislative period prompted the search for suitable locations for housing construction throughout the entire Berlin city area. In spring 2016, the choice fell not only on ten further locations but also on the state-owned properties in the south of Blankenburg.

When the test drafts are available in spring 2020 – they should be as varied as possible and deliver concrete ideas and pictures – a draft can be derived from them which the Berlin House of Representatives will finally vote on.

Read more:

Senatsverwaltung für Stadtentwicklung und Wohnen, “Kooperatives städtebauliches Werkstattverfahren” (2019)

Senatsverwaltung für Stadtentwicklung und Wohne, “Blankenburger Süden Aktuelle Entwicklung” (2019)

Schubert, Thomas. “Ein „Klimawald“ für den Blankenburger Süden” ( 23.08.2019)

https://www.stadtentwicklung.berlin.de/wohnen/wohnungsbau/blankenburger-sueden/de/werkstattverfahren.shtml 

Chemnitz Project Group Meeting

This 4th and 5th of November TSPA presented the current state of the city vision developing in the city of Chemnitz as part to Chemnitz-Strategie 2040 through workshops and meetings with the current project group and the city administration.

Tianjin Municipal Engineering Design & Research Institute delegation visit to TSPA

Last September 10 representatives of the Tianjin Municipal Engineering Design & Research Institute from China visited TSPA with the aim to get a deeper insight of the work and processes in a  city planning office.

Sophie Leemans, architecture intern at TSPA was awarded with the Jef Van Ranst Prize

Our our dear colleague and architecture intern, Sophie Leemans was awarded with the Jef Van Ranst Price 2019 for the free-hand design sketches that form part of her master thesis master thesis “Adaptive architecture and flood permitting cities”. The award ceremony took place during the Flemish Architecture Festival as part of the symposium “Drawing Attention” on 25th September in Ghent.

EcoCity Wonosobo

Today, on October 7 TSPA and Berim discuss the Eco-City Wonosobo concept with the city team on Central Java. The ambition is to integrate a green-blue network, waste-to-energy-systems, a better and more walkable street network, improved water management with rain gardens plus a sustainable economy district. Way to go!

Moscow Forum – City: The Details

Our colleague Filippo Imberti is heading to Moscow to participate as a speaker at the business forum and exhibition City: The Details (Город:Детали) and jury member at the relevant competition.
The forum is organised by the Government of Moscow City and will become part of the government program My District.
Filippo will present TSPA approach and case studies on urban spaces transformations.
Check out our Twitter and Instagram pages for more insights during the event!

TSPA to host chancellor fellowship

TSPA today welcomed Alexandra Katasanova in Bonn at the reception of 2019’s grant winners of the German Chancellor Fellowship for tomorrow’s leaders.

The Alexander von Humboldt Foundation annually awards ten candidates each from Brazil, China, India, Russia, and the USA to spend an research a year in Germany. TSPA will be one of the host organisation in 2019, and we look forward to work with Alexandra on building a platform for enabling cooperation in urban development in the coming year!

Premio Berlino winner Valentina Travaglino shares her experiences with TSPA

On the 24th of January 2019, our dear colleague and Premio Berlino 2018 winner Valentina Travaglino shared her story of working with TSPA for the last 4 months. Presented at the Italian Institute of Culture (Istituto Italiano di Cultura Berlino), she shared her experiences and presented a status update of her work within TSPA.

Premio Berlino has been awarded for the second time to young architects for the excellence in their work. The program allows two Italian architects, who excel in the reuse and urban regeneration of urban spaces, to spend 6 months working within an architecture or urban planning office in Berlin. This program is funded by the Italian Ministries of Culture and Foreign Affairs.

TSPA feels honored that Valentina chose our office to spend 6 months working and collaborating on certain projects, such as the Impulse.Berlin project and the currently developing project of the three cities (Alto Molúcuè, Gurué and Milange) in Mozambique. During her presentation she shared her time approach and findings on what kind of challenges Mozambique faces and will face in the future and the research she has carried out. The presentations at the Italian Institute were free to the public and we were happy to see that the evening was well attended.

Want to follow Valentina Travaglino and her work at TSPA? Premio Berlino has set a final presentation of the six month period in March 2019, which is also accessible to the public. The final presentation of Valentina’s time at TSPA will be held at the Aedes Metropolitan Laboratory, so keep an eye on this website for when the actual date has been set!

Updates will also be shared via our TSPA Twitter, Instagram and Facebook!

TSPA is a partner of the Moscow Urban Forum event

For the last 8 years, Moscow Urban Forum was gathering experts from various fields and countries to discuss the most prominent issues our cities are facing. Questions, such as what is a smart city, how cities can become even more inclusive and resilient, or how do we cope with digitalization in planning and everyday life?

In the summer of 2018, TSPA was invited to support MUF in the topic about “MEGAPOLIS OF THE FUTURE. NEW SPACE FOR LIVING”. We were honored to be the main partners of the event, among internationally recognized organizations like OECD and PWC.

Additionally to the partner role, TSPA participated in the round table discussion about successful urban and real estate development practices.

To learn more about the event, see the link below:
https://mosurbanforum.com/archive/2018/

 

or visit the link to watch the panel session:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMOOCMqTO68

Plano Estrutura Urbana Sussundenga

Defining a structural plan for a city often is the solution to a resilient and sustainable future, especially in the regions that aim to predict the unpredictable. A structural plan is a framework to guide the development of the area by defining its upcoming demands and identifying key features that will influence the future. As well as defining patterns of land use, open space, and infrastructure.

Together with Mozambican firm Vocação Técnica, TSPA elaborated the structural plan for the city of Sussundenga. A process, also known as Plano Estrutura Urbana Sussundenga (PEUS) was initiated by the Ministry of Land, Environment and Rural Development (MITADER) of Mozambique and that was based on a participatory approach and sustainable local development.

Rapid demographic growth and urbanization together with limited natural resources were fundamental threats for the city and the main challenges to face with. 

Our proposal defines the modalities of urban development by expanding and connecting infrastructure, encouraging the consolidation of the existing settlement, and leading future expansions in limited areas.

See the full project description on our project page. 

 

make city berlin tspa

TSPA is a funding partner of the MakeCity.Berlin

MakeCity.Berlin – is an international festival for architecture and urbanism. It is a platform to  initiate changes for a better urban development in Berlin. This year, along the list of many other interesting practices and institutions from Berlin, TSPA became a funding partner of MakeCity.Berlin. It was a great opportunity to become more involved in the urban planning scene in the German capital and connect with experts, who are equally passionate about new discourses and opportunities of the city.

Additionally to the sponsoring role, out team had a unique chance to develop and propose a new project Impuls.berlin. Together with a great team of external experts, TSPA helped to develop an idea for a new knowledge and expertise sharing platform. Impulse.berlin aims to create an ecosystem where urban actors have the time and space to think and create a good city”. To find out more information about the project, click here.

You can read more about our contribution here

Stadt machen! Impulse.berlin

TSPA and Kollectiv Data started a new platform – City Scan

TSPA and Kollectiv Data started platform to make spatial data more accessible.

As cities are more and more pressured with the rapid changes, data analysis and data visualization can help to speed up knowledge transfer and cope with the upcoming being more informed and involved. CityScan is a platform founded with the aim of preparing geodata and making it usable. With appealing visualisations, different groups of access to spatial data in an uncomplicated and efficient way. A cooperation project, CityScan consist of the interdisciplinary team with the experts from geography, urban development, mapping and communication fields. It started as a part of the MakeCity.berlin festival. The main vision of this platform is to to bring different actors together, transfer information more transparently and start  a new initiative to make our cities more livable. Making Berlin’s geospatial data more accessible and usable the aim is to stimulate initial discussions.

Find out more information about CityScan here.

Thomas Stellmach gave a lecture in BTU Cottbus on making cities

Thomas was invited to give a lecture in BTU Cottbus, where he shared his insights about establishing a successful urban planning office. The discussion with students focused on key questions in the beginning of one’s professional life, while Thomas also showed key projects and discussed the processes behind their development.

To read more about the lecture, visit the link below:
https://www.b-tu.de/fg-baukonstruktion/derdiedas/archiv

Public Toilet Infrastructure in Berlin – Zebralog Interview

Read the interview with Britta Letz (German) about the project cooperation between TSPA and Zebralog for the new structural concept for public toilets in Berlin:

Im August 2017 hat der Berliner Senat das von Regine Günther (Senatorin für Umwelt, Verkehr und Klimaschutz) vorgelegte Toilettenkonzept beschlossen. Es wurde von TSPA in Zusammenarbeit mit Zebralog und der TU Berlin erarbeitet. Bis März 2018 läuft nun die europaweite Ausschreibung für die Beschaffung, Errichtung und Betrieb der Toilettenanlagen. Wie der Beteiligungsprozess dazu lief und warum der Dialog unser Projektteam so begeisterte, ist im Interview mit Zebra Britta Letz zu lesen.

Liebe Britta, laut eigener Aussage gehört der sogenannte Berliner „Toilettendialog“ zu einem deiner Lieblingsprojekte bei Zebralog – wieso?
Zunächst weil das Thema sehr konkret ist und es wirklich alle betrifft. Jede*r „muss mal“. Eine öffentliche Toilette ist für die Teilhabe vieler Menschen am öffentlichen Leben wesentlich. Vielleicht ist es auf den ersten Blick kein Thema, wozu man sich als „Durchschnittsmensch“ viele Gedanken macht. Aber eine barrierefreie und gut zugängliche Toilette ist beispielsweise für viele Menschen mit Behinderungen eine Grundvoraussetzung, um sich in der Stadt frei bewegen zu können.

[…]
Das Thema „Öffentliche Toiletten“ hat so viele Facetten, wenn man sich damit befasst, wie eine Toilette ausgestattet oder an welchem Ort diese aufgestellt werden sollte. Inklusion ist hier das Stichwort. Und damit sind nicht nur Menschen mit Behinderungen gemeint. Für Menschen mit unterschiedlichen Behinderungen muss die Toilette natürlich barrierefrei sein. Darüberhinaus fühlen sich womöglich Frauen bei schlecht einsehbaren Toiletten mit geringer Außenbeleuchtung unsicherer als andere. Ältere Personen brauche eine einfache Handhabung zur Verriegelung mit wenig Schnickschnack. Dann stellt sich auch die Frage nach einer diskriminierungsfreien Toilette für alle Geschlechter – und: 50 Cent oder kostenfrei für Alle?

Nicht zuletzt sei natürlich erwähnt, dass die Zusammenarbeit mit unserem Projektpartner Thomas Stellmach Planning und Architecture (TSPA) eine wirklich harmonische und beteiligungseuphorische Zeit war. Wir waren ein geladenes Projektteam aus Fachexpertise und Beteiligungserfahrung!

Read the full text here (German).

From Knowledge Places to Knowledge Spaces

The results of out studio on creating a knowledge campus in Riga have been published in Dreams and Seeds – The role of campuses in sustainable urban development. Thanks to the European Union and Interreg Central Baltic for their support of the Live Baltic Campus project.

Below an excerpt of the project text.
Knowledge Mile Riga: Co-designing four universities into a collaborative network

The proposal to create a Knowledge Mile stems from an architectural design studio at the RISEBA Faculty of Architecture and Design, Riga. During the spring 2017, ten students and three tutors explored the future of academic campuses by researching global, regional and local case studies as they pertain to education, research and innovation. The chosen territory falls within the geographical scope of the Live Baltic Campus project activities in Riga and that of the prospective development of the main national academic campuses. Imaginative spatial scenarios in the proposal were meant to be reflexive and alternative rather than in line with formal planning policies. The proposal rethinks the development plans of existing academic campuses – the University of Latvia, Riga Technical University, RISEBA and Riga Stradins University – into a more coherent, dynamic knowledge network.

BGMR & Sensitive urban landscapes

On April 14th, Berlin-based landscape office bgmr celebrated (more than) three decades of their existence. They invited Anna Bernegg of Urban Catalyst, Fritz Reusswig of PIK, Antje Stokman of HCU and Thomas Stellmach of TSPA to discuss the future of landscape urbanism. It was an interesting discussion – Happy birthday Bea, Undine, Dirk, Carlo!

Open Door – Day of Architecture 2018

Visit us at ‘Tag der Architektur’ on June 23. Open door, interesting projects, lively discussions… and Vermouth drinks until we are out (the drinks). Also with mekado and cba, JCA and other partners.

Traditionell steht das letzte Wochenende im Juni ganz im Zeichen der qualitätvollen Baukultur. Am 23. und 24. Juni findet zum 23. Mal der Tag der Architektur, diesmal unter dem Motto „Architektur bleibt!“, statt. Das Programm dieses publikumswirksamen Ereignisses gestalten interessierte Kammermitglieder aller Bundesländer – mit Führungen durch zeitgenössische private sowie öffentliche Bauten, Freianlagen, Innenräume und/oder einem offenen Büro mit Standort in Berlin. Das diesjährige Angebot ist größer denn je. Allein rund 70 Projekte mit Führungen stehen auf dem Programm. In Berlin machen, passend zum Motto, nicht nur viele Denkmalumbauten anschaulich, wie sensibles Bauen im Bestand aussieht. Wer will, kann sich direkt mit denen austauschen, die all das geschaffen haben: Die Führungen übernehmen die Architektinnen und Architekten selbst. In den offenen Büros laden sie zu Vorträgen, Ausstellungen, Festen und Gesprächen ein. Das gesamte Programm sowie die App zum Tag der Architektur erscheinen im Mai 2018.

2018 findet zeitgleich auch das Architekturfestival MakeCity statt, das zusammen mit dem Tag der Architektur viele Aspekte des Bauens und der Stadtentwicklung thematisiert. Im Vorfeld findet am 16./17. Juni der Galerierundgang „Architecture Exhibitions Weekend“ statt.

rummelsburg tspa

Podium discussion about gentrification in Berlin – Remmidemmi in Rummelsburg

To discuss the current gentrification process in Berlin’s neighborhoods, Kilian Immobiliengruppe together with Stiftung Zukunf Berlin organized the panel discussion ‘Remmidemmi in RummelsburgHURRA, DIE GENTRIFIZIERER SIND DA!

The debates about the gentrification process in Rummelsburg – about one of the most attractive and overlooked neighborhoods in Berlin, took a place in the new artist/studio quarter Gaswerksiedlung. Thomas participated as an urban planning expert and to share his insight about the impact of gentrification and different sides of this process.

Learn more about the event in the link below:
Quartiergespräch Remmidemmi in Rummelsburg

 

Five work places available now at Aquabutze coworking space

We are renting one to five desks. Ideal for a small team!

€€€
206 € (177.50 € net, USt/VAT excluded). Per desk, per month.

!!!
What you get:

Public Toilets for Berlin

The municipal planning department of Berlin – the Senatsverwaltung für Stadtentwicklung und Umwelt – has commissioned a consortium led by TSPA to develop a comprehensive plan for the the Berlin’s provision with public rest rooms.

The project is intriguing, much more than we understood in the very first moment: How would a Toilet next to Berghain look like, in comparison with one at Brandenburg gate? What is the relation between Toilets and public advertisement in this city? What are new ecological approaches, and what do rest rooms have to do with tourism, safety, culture and public space in general?

We are looking forward to work with the colleagues at Zebralog and the Technical University of Berlin!

Die Versorgung mit öffentlich zugänglichen Toiletten beeinflusst nicht unerheblich wie wir uns in der Stadt bewegen. Dies ist insbesondere für die Jüngeren und Älteren, für Behinderte und für Touristen und Besucher der Stadt relevant. Es wird nicht nur darum gehen, dass die Versorgung sichergestellt wird, sondern auch in welcher Qualität. Um dies sicherzustellen, schlagen wir sechs Schwerpunktthemen – Wirtschaftlichkeit, Gestalterische Qualität, Sicherheit, Inklusion, Hygiene, Umweltfreundlichkeit – vor, die uns zu einem ganzheitlichen und nachhaltigen Konzept führen werden. Dazu haben wir ein interdisziplinäres Team zusammengestellt:
TSPA ist als Hauptauftragnehmer Ansprechpartner des Senats und übernimmt die Projektkoordination. TSPA trägt internationale Erfahrung im Bereich strategischer Stadtentwicklung und der Gestaltung öffentlichen Raums bei.
Ein Konzept für Berlins öffentliche Toiletten bedarf eines öffentlichen Prozesses. Zebralog wird den konstruktiven Dialog mit relevanten Interessengruppen herstellen und die Beteiligungs- und Werkstattverfahren gestalten.
Prof. Barjenbruch mit der Abteilung Siedlungswasserwirtschaft der TU Berlin ist herausragender Experte für Siedlungswasserverwertung sowie Technologien und Wirtschaftlichkeit der Toilettensysteme.
Diesem Kernteam stellen wir Experten an die Seite, die uns zu den Themen Inklusion und Tourismus beraten werden: Prof.in Dr. Bettina Möllring berät uns in Fragen soziokultureller und Genderaspekte, Dipl. Ing., Dipl. Slaw. Anna Haase trägt ihre Erfahrung im Bereich des Tourismus, kulturhistorischer Aspekte öffentlicher Toiletten und Ihre langjährige Ortskenntnis bei.
Unser Team ist ein Berliner Team, das gleichzeitig über globale Erfahrung verfügt und erfahren in der interdisziplinären Zusammenarbeit ist. Das erlaubt uns auch die Außenperspektive einzunehmen und Berlin im weltweiten Vergleich zu verstehen.

TSPA co-founds housing cooperative urbancoopberlin. Winning competition for the Schöneberger Linse in Berlin

Affordable housing, sustainable financing models, land leasehold models, intergenerational living, green architecture: these topics have in common that we promote them as planners and architects. They also have in common that they are more easily said than done. To see what can actually be done, TSPA founded the housing cooperative urbancoopberlin, together with  SammlerUsingerLIST GmbH, Hervé De Giovannini, SUSTAINABLE SERVICES. As our first test case, we participated in the competition of the city of Berlin for the ‘Schöneberger Linse’ organised by Senate of Berlin. The competition asked a sustainability and renting concept besides the architectural proposal. The urbancoop proposal won the first prize, being awarded the plot and development opportunity. Have a look at the project here and learn more about the residents’ engagement process in this video.

Nampula City Development Strategy Framework

Nampula is Mozambique’s second largest urban centre and considered the ‘capital’ of northern region. It is also one of the economically most dynamic cities of the country due to its location in the centre of Nampula Province – the most populous and prosperous of Mozambique – in the heartland of highly productive agricultural areas, at the cross roads between the East-West Nacala Development Corridor linking land-locked Malawi and Zambia to the port of Nacala, and the North-South corridor linking Tanzania with the rest of Mozambique. Due to these facts Nampula has been growing rapidly from 53,970 inhabitants in 1970, to 158,099 in 1980 and 306,074 in 1997; it is now estimated that the population of the is around 600,000 inhabitants, showing an annual growth of over 5%, which puts a tremendous pressure on urban land, infrastructure and municipal services. At the same time the surrounding District of Nampula is the fastest growing in Nampula Province. This explosive urban growth has been and continues to be mainly unplanned, so that more than 80% of the population live in high density squatter settlements with appalling housing, environmental and living conditions and generally deprived of the most basic infrastructure and services, and is potentially preventing successful investment projects if no proper territorial planning strategy is thought through.

Since 2008 the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) has been supporting the municipality and district of Nampula, together the Faculty of Architecture and Physical Planning (FAPF) at the Eduardo Mondlane University (UEM) and with the financial support of Cities Alliance, in preparing a city-wide slum upgrading plan (CWSUP) and a city development strategy (CDS) which covers the surrounding Nampula District to cater for the urban growth in the medium to long term, hence preventing the formation of new slums in the peri-urban areas and providing more favourable conditions for investment.

On November 12th, Thomas Stellmach of TSPA will lead a workshop with stakeholders from communities, the private sector and the local government of Nampula to validate the priority projects of the City Development Strategy Framework. The report is set to be released in early 2017.

Oppo

TSPA participated in the Opportunity Space design-build competition organised by the a Van Alen institute. The task was challenging multidisciplinary teams to propose a temporary, mobile structure that will support economic opportunity and social inclusion in Malmö, Sweden.

Our entry OPPO is an inflatable, helium filled balloon of translucent polyurethane, in the shape of a torus. Due to its lighter-than-air nature, it can float in the night sky of Malmö. During the day, when events take place, Oppo is lowered to the ground, and serves as a meeting space. The simplicity and visibility of the object are the reason to visit the site.

See the full project presentation on our projects page.

Kiev Urban Actions

British Council Ukraine and the Goethe-Institut, in partnership with CANactions, launched a programme to identify, support and implement innovative urban development projects that seek to reinvigorate post-industrial, mid-sized cities across the Ukraine through the cultural and creative industries. The programme recognises the importance of supporting communities which are working together to address common urban issues.
TSPA, as German partner, supported one of the two winners during the implementation of their proposal in Konstyantinivka (Ukraine).
During the week from April 3 to 9 TSPA led the team through some of the most known Berlin participatory practices and discussed possible scenarios of the intervention.

Take a look at the programme and the visit outcome!

 

 

“Das Ziel ist eine Stadt, die für alle da ist…” – The article “Room to Live” in Berliner Wirtschaftsgespräche

Das Ziel ist eine Stadt, die für alle da ist…

(The aim is to build the city for everyone…)

What does it mean to us, that nowadays we live in the apartments, that have so little to do with the way how we live in the city? How to tame the increasing lack of affordable housing? What lessons can be learned from our other European countries? The article “Room to Live” about modern dwelling typologies and cooperative housing model tried to tackle these ubiquitous questions. Written by Thomas and his partner from urban coop berlin, Robert Ostmann this piece was published by Berliner Wirtschaftsgespräche.

See the entire publication here.

Berlin Design Sprint

What is a connected and autonomous vehicle? How do CAVS work and how can urban streets be reclaimed and reimagined through their introduction?
Thomas is invited to the Berlin Design Sprint to answer these questions and discuss urban mobility.

The event is organised by BuroHappold and will take place on Wednesday, January 18 at InnoZ Berlin.

Other participants are:

  • Prof. Phillipp Misselwitz – TU Berlin
  • Prof. Vanessa Miriam Carlow – COBE Berlin, TU Darmstadt
  • Wolfram Pütz – GRAFT Architekten
  • Max Schwitalla – Studio Schwitalla
  • Xavier Vagedes – Robert Bosch
  • Dr. Sabina Uffer – BuroHappold Engineering
  • Heinrich Stößenreuther – Clevere Städte
  • Imran Khan – Google
  • Ute Klotzbücher – BVG (Berliner Verkehr Gesellschaft)

More info at Berlin Sprinting Future and Design Sprint Berlin

 

Kampala Region, 2013 (Thomas Stellmach)

MetroHUB workshop for Kampala & Entebbe in Berlin

In partnership with the government of Uganda, giz, UN-Habitat, and Pedro Ortiz, Thomas of TSPA will facilitate a workshop in Berlin to promote a compact, socially inclusive, integrated and connected system of cities in the Greater Kampala metropolitan region.

The MetroHUB workshop approach will combine capacity development in planning, governance and finance aspects and with “hands-on” team work on acupuncture projects. The main elements of the capacity development workshop in Berlin are a series of seminars and lectures, presentations on planning, governance and finance, exploration of and discussion on case studies and good practices, field visits, and the definition of acupuncture projects in Uganda.

Context (concept note):

Uganda is experiencing rapid urbanization which has serious implications in terms of demand for land, housing, water, health, education, jobs and urban services. While the country urbanization is still low at 15 % and young compared to her East African counterpart such as Kenya and Tanzania, the country has a high rate of urban growth estimated at 5.1% per annum. The country’s capital, Kampala remain the dominant city with a population of 1.5 million, but a clear growth of secondary towns remain evident with 50% of the urban population living in 22 designated municipalities and 174 town councils. It’s projected that the year 2035, 30% of the country’s population will be living in urban areas.

Over the past two decades, remarkable economic growth at an average rate 7 per cent in 1990s and early 2000s, coupled with political stability have led to increased urbanization and agglomeration of people and higher order economic activities. Within this context and unless urban areas are managed properly they will grow into large unplanned settlements. Currently, the country cities and urban areas are already experiencing urban planning and development challenges including congestion, development of slums and informal settlements, urban sprawl, environmental degradation, high levels of unemployment, urban poverty and crime, a clear indication that the urbanization process in the country needs to be better managed.

The urbanization challenges experienced in Uganda force the country to now proactively manage urbanization within its town councils, cities and in the secondary towns to ensure a better urban future for its residents. There is need to move fast as it is always easier to establish competitive cities by building solid foundations when the rate of urbanization is still relatively low. To do this, capacities of both central and urban local governments to manage the country’s urbanization process and partnerships to effectively manage urban growth need to be enhanced.

Refugee City: Greening Camps – Midterm Reviews

Thomas is invited as guest critic to the Midterm Presentation of the Design Studio (October 2016 to February 2017) organised at the Technische Universität Berlin (TUB) and the University of Petra (UoP) in Amman. The Presentation will take place on January 6, 2017 from 10am to 1pm at Technische Universität Berlin (TUB).

The aim of the workshop is to support the CBOs to develop designs for their green spaces in a participatory and innovative way; and to develop and implement small-scale interventions that contribute to sustainable resource management and greening strategies in refugee camps.

Final presentation will be held on February 17, 2017.

Team:

  • Prof. Dr. Philipp Misselwitz
  • Prof. Jochen Rabe
  • Dip.-Ing. Nina Pawlicki
  • M.A. Ayham Dalal

More info at Technische Universität Berlin – Habitat Unit

urban coop berlin

Urban Coop Berlin: Second Round for Cooperative Housing Project “Schöneberger Linse”

Urban coop berlin has been invited to the second round of the comprehensive concept selection process for the “Schöneberger Linse” in Berlin. The criteria for the final selection will be in particular innovative programme and architectural solutions, besides the usual commercial factors.

Urban Coop Berlin, of which we are a member, will start to develop on the base of the preference assessment of our aspiring members of the cooperative.

The “Schöneberger Linse” neighbourhood is envisioned as a model project in the South of Berlin. The 1,180 m² site will provide 900 apartments next to Berlin’s second largest train station Südkreuz. For the first time, the seat of Berlin plans to involve a mix of stakeholders as developers collaborating on a single site: building initiatives, cooperatives, investment groups and municipal housing agencies, to “ensure a stable neighbourhood development with a sustainable social and programmatic mix”.

Riga

Thomas Stellmach appointed Guest Chair for Urbanism at RISEBA, Riga

Thomas has been appointed for the Guest Chair for Urban Space, Planning and Urban Regeneration at RISEBA Faculty of Architecture and Design in Riga, Latvia starting from February 2017.

We’ll start off working on the new Tornakalns University Campus in the heart of Riga. The research-by-design project is part of the Live Baltic Campus initiative.

We’ll be testing new design and education methods, immersing the students in a real-world process and developing cooperative work approaches. We’re excited to work with them and the great RISEBA team.

Live Baltic Campus aims at developing campuses as innovation hubs by creating better urban environment for businesses and residents. The idea is to create a working method for participative urban planning which is adopted by the cities involved as part of their normal work.
In practice, the project brings together city planners, government representatives, campus developers and stakeholders to utilize the campuses as labs with an aim to develop plans for better integrated urban management of the Central Baltic region. The project creates a network of practitioners ensuring knowledge transfer between the northern and southern parts of the Central Baltic region. Pilot implementations conducted in each area explore participative urban planning in its different phases, from preceding the official planning, to activities supplementing the official planning and following the official process.
As the main result, project creates integrated campus development plans, as well as service concepts and implementation plans for each partner region via pilot cases co-developed with the city government and stakeholders. In addition, the project creates a platform for discussing policy objectives, exchanging best practices and improving the quality of life indicators. By sharing the experiences from the regional pilots and comparing pilots’ results the project aims for better urban planning in which different stakeholders – residents as well businesses – are being taking into account. And by creating better urban environment the project results in creating new jobs and having positive impacts on the local economy.
The lead partner of Live Baltic Campus is Metropolia University of Applied Sciences. Other partners are City of Helsinki (Executive Office, Economic Development), Riga Planning Region, Stockholm University, University of Latvia, University of Tartu, University of Turku and Uppsala University. Associated partners are City of Turku and Helsinki-Uusimaa Regional Council. The project is funded by Central Baltic Programme and the project operates from October 2015 until March 2018.

RISEBA Riga Guest Crit

From 15 to 16 December 2016 Thomas will be guest critic at RISEBA Faculty of Architecture and Design in Riga, Latvia.

Riga’s built environment features different urban paradigms. While some of its parts seem like Scandinavian villages, some parts remind of Berlin’s Gründerzeit, and – not surprisingly – large parts resemble typical Eastern Bloc suburbs. This enables the city to cater to a variety of generations, users and tastes.

The Faculty of Architecture and Design (FAD) currently realises a unique, international and competitive architecture study programme in Latvia, between European and Russian heritage. Since its foundation in 2011, faculty has combined the best architecture education standards and teaching experiences within Europe becoming the architecture school of the regional importance. FAD offers the education at the highest standards with the curriculum that combines its main study fields, architecture, urban planning and design, with the understanding of the business skills and social sciences.

4th German-African Infrastructure Forum

The oceans provide smooth transitions between continents and economies and are essential components of intercontinental trade and global networking. What are the challenges concerning international trade, infrastructure development, and rapid urban growth in Sub-Saharan Africa?

During the last years the Africa Association has established the Infrastructure Forum which became a great German-African platform for network targeted in industry-specific topics.

Thomas is invited to participate as a panelist to discuss the challenges of rapid urban growth in Africa’s market towns.

The Forum takes place on Monday, Dec 05 to Tuesday, Dec 06, in Hamburg. See further details and register at afrikaverein.de, and look at the full program.

City of Ufa to host workshop “Instruments for Sustainable Urban Development” with TSPA

TSPA has been invited by the city of Ufa in Russia to facilitate a workshop on Instruments for Sustainable Urban Development from 2 to 3 December 2016. Expected participants are representatives of the municipal planning departments and urbanists from Yekaterinburg, Krasnoyarsk, Kazan, Saint Petersburg, Moscow, and Ufa.

The objectives of the two day work session are the:

  • Development of common positions on fundamental issues of spatial development of Russian cities (goals, objectives, values and possible contours of development projects)
  • Consolidation of community and the search for potential leaders for breakthrough projects
    Anticipating the future of urban planning, define the roles of each stakeholder
  • Release of an action paper with next steps towards better planning instruments, policies, and potential pilot projects.

We will work towards than in four work session with focus on
Urban form, Planning process, Legal instruments, and
Financial instruments.

Urban Coop Berlin stakeholder meeting

Berlin’s housing stock becomes less and less affordable. Who doesn’t own an apartment yet, hasn’t got much room to move, speculation is rampant. We’re looking for new solutions. On Friday, October 14, we have shown as part of urban coop berlin, how alternative models can work:

Als erste Projektentwicklungsgesellschaft für Wohnbaugenossenschaften in Berlin zeichnet sich das Team mit Architekten (deGiovannini), Stadtplanern (TSPA) und Sozialwissenschaftlern (Sustainable Services) durch breite und vielfältige Kompetenzen und Erfahrungen im Wohnbau, Nachhaltigkeit und Gemeinwesenentwicklung aus.

Die urban coop berlin ist eine Plattform für alle, die anders wohnen und gemeinsam bauen wollen. Unter den Werten fair, flexibel, gemeinsam und verantwortungsvoll werden autonome genossenschaftliche Wohnprojekte geplant und umgesetzt, die sich zukünftig in einem Netzwerk gegenseitig unterstützen.

Fair bedeutet bezahlbar und nicht spekulativ; flexibel bedeutet einfacher Ein- und Austritt, Veränderungsmöglichkeiten innerhalb des Gebäudes und anpassungsfähige Wohnflächen; unter gemeinsam versteht man die Beteiligung der Bewohner bei Planung, Bau und in der Wohngenossenschaft und zu guter Letzt steht verantwortungsvoll dafür, dass sozial und ökologisch verträglich entwickelt und gebaut wird und zum Beispiel ein Nachbarschaftscafé eingerichtet oder der Gemeinschaftsgarten für andere geöffnet wird.

Die Herangehensweise an ein Bauprojekt unterscheidet sich im Vergleich zu Baugruppen dahingehend, dass bereits alle organisatorischen Strukturen geschaffen sind, die es ermöglichen, schnell zu agieren, sobald ein Grundstück verfügbar ist, die Sicherheit geben in Verfahren und im Ablauf – vom Kauf bis zum Abschluss des Baus – und die die Wünsche und Präferenzen der Wohnungsanwärter bereits vorab abfragt.

Insgesamt zeigt das große Interesse der fast 60 Teilnehmerinnen und Teilnehmer an diesem Abend, dass wir ein Thema aufgreifen, das vielen unter den Nägeln brennt. Viele haben sich direkt vor Ort als Anwärter registriert und wollen, neben dem Wunsch nach bezahlbarem, gemeinschaftlichen und sicherem Wohnraum, auch beitragen zu einer veränderten Bau- und Wohnungspolitik in der Stadt.

See the presentation here, and check here, how to join urban coop.

A Masterplan won’t solve anything

Russian cities usually have a functioning city administration, often a strong civil society, and s strong framework of urban regulations. Yet, when we look at the current state of the urban environment, they are very much the opposite of an attractive, liveable city.

Thomas of TSPA and Anton Shatalov of Proektdevelopment, a young innovative office which forms part of the fledgling Siberian urban design scene, explore this question using Krasnoyarsk as an example. The conversation was hosted by gorodprima. Read the full dialogue (in Russian) here: “A Masterplan won’t solve anything“.

Berlin Senate agrees on Urban Coop’s Policy Paper

In September 2016, urban coop berlin, together with TSPA, drafted policy recommendations for an affordable housing strategy in Berlin. The key recommendations are:

• to issue state equity capital guarantees for low-income households to allow them to join housing cooperatives
• to allocate state-owned land to housing associations using leasehold laws

See our full policy recommendations paper Cooperatives for long-term affordable housing (pdf, German).

Last week, the coalition agreement of the newly elected Berlin Government has been released, fully including our policy recommendations in the governance programme. An important first step for a more equitable housing market is achieved:

“Wohnen ist für uns ein Grundrecht. Wir erkennen die innerstädtischen Verdrängungsprozesse als Herausforderung und wissen um die Sorgen der Menschen, sich im prosperierenden Berlin ihre Wohnungen nicht mehr leisten zu können. Ein Schwerpunkt der rot-rot-grünen Koalition ist deshalb die Sicherung und die zusätzliche Schaffung von bezahlbaren Wohnungen. Diese wichtige Aufgabe werden primär unsere landeseigenen Wohnungsbaugesellschaften, aber auch Genossenschaften und innovative Wohnprojekte leisten. Private Bauvorhaben müssen zukünftig eine höhere Sozialrendite durch Schaffung von neuen bezahlbaren Wohnungen, Kita- und Schulplätzen sowie Grünflächen als Ausgleich für zusätzliche Versiegelung leisten.”

“Flächen für den Wohnungsbau sollen an landeseigene Wohnungsbaugesellschaften, Genossenschaften, soziale Bauträger wie auch Baugruppen vergeben werden. Die Kriterien werden so ausgestaltet, dass der Anteil von Wohnungen mit Mietpreis- und Belegungsbindung 30% bis 50% der Wohnfläche beträgt. Durch eine kleinteilige Parzellierung von Flächen, transparente Verfahren und Konzeptvergaben in Erbbaurecht soll ein niederschwelliger Zugang zu Liegenschaften für gemeinwohlorientierte Nutzergruppen und Träger sowie Genossenschaften gesichert werden.”

“Die Koalition unterstützt stadtweit Modellprojekte, wie am Falkenhagener Feld und am Kottbusser Tor angedacht, für selbstverwaltete Mietergenossenschaften. Außerdem sollen Genossenschaftsgründungen aus der Bewohnerschaft sowie Ankäufe von privaten Sozialwohnungen durch Bewohnergenossenschaften gefördert und unterstützt werden.”

“Um das Wohnungsangebot für Haushalte mit geringen und mittleren Einkommen zu erweitern, sollen die Genossenschaften durch Wohnraumförderung, die Bereitstellung von Grundstücken und Kooperationen beim kommunalen Vorkaufsrecht stärker unterstützt werden. Die Koalition will erreichen, dass auch Transferleistungsbeziehende in Genossenschaften aufgenommen werden können und gewährleistet die Übernahme der Genossenschaftsanteile durch die Jobcenter. Für Haushalte mit geringem Einkommen wird ein Darlehens- bzw. Bürgschaftsprogramm geprüft. Die Koalition wird die Neugründung von Genossenschaften unterstützen. “

“Vergabe von landeseigenen Flächen für den Wohnungsbau, überwiegend an die städtischen Wohnungsbaugesellschaften und zudem an Genossenschaften, andere gemeinwohlorientierte Träger und Baugruppen in Erbpacht … Unterstützung von innovativen und generationenübergreifenden Wohnformen”

“Die Koalition wird die Beratung von Unternehmungen der solidarischen und genossenschaftlichen Ökonomie stärken und in der Wirtschaftsverwaltung institutionell verankern, damit diese die Förderprogramme des Landes besser nutzen können.”

Full coalition agreement (pdf, German).

TSPA at Krasnoyarsk Conference in Moscow Urban Forum

Krasnoyarsk is the easternmost city in Russia with a population of over one million. Being the economic center of a giant multinational and multicultural region that covers a land area eight times larger than Germany – but with a population of only 3 million – the city faces spatial, cultural and economic challenges which require an overhaul its urban development strategies. Krasnoyarsk will also host the Universiade in 2017, which will serve as a catalyst for urban renewal.

Consequently, Moscow Urban Forum organised a conference in Krasnoyarsk “Cities and territories tomorrow: Tools for positive change” to discuss how Krasnoyarsk’s transformation can be enabled in the coming decades.

Thomas Stellmach, director of TSPA, was invited as foreign expert together with Markus Appenzeller of MLA+ to discuss potential approaches for change together with Russian colleagues and experts.

Was ist Städtebau des 21. Jahrhunderts?

Die Berliner Wirtschaftsgespräche, das interdisziplinäre Netzwerk Architekten für Architekten (AfA) und der Architekten- und Ingenieur-Verein zu Berlin (AIV) laden gemeinsam zur dritten Veranstaltung im Rahmen der Diskussionsreihe „StadtWertSchätzen: Positionen zu Stadtentwicklung – Architektur – Städtebau in Berlin 2016-2021“ ein.

Wir werden am Mittwoch, 12.10.2016, um 19:00 die Frage “Was ist Städtebau des 21. Jahrhunderts (in Berlin)?” erörtern. Neben Thomas als Vertreter der Stadtplaner werden Prof. Dr. Harald Bodenschatz, Annelie Schoen und Uwe Rilke die Akademische, Institutionelle, und Investment-Perspektive vertreten.

Berlin wächst. Seit Jahren übersteigt die Nachfrage nach bezahlbarem Wohnraum das Angebot. Gleiches gilt für Gewerbeflächen und die soziale Infrastruktur. Die internationale Zuwanderung verschärft diese Situation. Das führt zu einer immer stärkeren Veränderungsdynamik – in den Quartieren wie in der Stadtgesellschaft. Welche Herausforderungen stellt die „wachsende Stadt“ für Stadtentwicklung, Architektur und Städtebau? Wie lassen sich experimentelle Wege gehen? Und von welchen internationalen Vorbildern kann Berlin lernen?

Im Teil III unserer Veranstaltungsreihe sollen die Herausforderungen unter den folgenden Fragestellungen diskutiert werden: Was heißt für Berlin Städtebau des 21. Jahrhunderts? Welche städtebaulichen Konzepte braucht Berlin? Heißt Städtebau in Berlin notwendigerweise immer Blockstruktur? Wie können exemplarisch neue städtebauliche Konzepte entwickelt werden? Welche internationalen Ansätze sind auch für Berlin richtungweisend? Welche Vergabeverfahren braucht es dafür? Und welche (neuen) Beteiligungsformen sind nötig?

Ort
Zentral- und Landesbibliothek – Haus Berliner Stadtbibliothek
Ribbeck-Haus – Kleiner Säulensaal
Breite Straße 30-36
10178 Berlin

Begrüßung
Georg Balzer
Netzwerk Architekten für Architekten (AfA)

Kerstin Lassnig
Vorstand Berliner Wirtschaftsgespräche e. V.

Podium
Uwe Rilke
CESA Investment GmbH & Co. KG

Annalie Schoen
Senatsverwaltung für Stadtentwicklung und Umwelt, Referatsleiterin IIA: Städtebauliche Projekte

Thomas Stellmach
Direktor TSPA – Thomas Stellmach Planning and Architecture

Prof. Dr. Harald Bodenschatz
Architekten- und Ingenieur-Verein zu Berlin (AIV)

Moderation
Kerstin Lassnig
Immobilienökonom (ebs), Vorstand Berliner Wirtschaftsgespräche e. V.

TSPA at ISU Talks #04: URBAN AFRICA

Thomas Stellmach will be present TSPA’s work in Sub-Saharan Africa of the one-day ISU conference about urban development and urban regeneration strategies within the African context. The ISU talk takes place on Thursday, November 17 at 2pm at TU Braunschweig.

See further details and register at sustainableurbanism.de.

The other panelists are:

  • Fabienne Hoelzel, Fabulous Urban/ETH Zurich
  • Michelle Provoost PhD, INTI International New Town Institute, Almere
  • Daan Roggeveen, MORE Architecture, Shanghai
  • Tjark Gall, TU Braunschweig/NGO Urban Framework
  • Hubert Nienhoff, gmp, Hamburg
  • Prof. Philipp Oswalt, University of Kassel

TSPA AT THE ISOCARP CONGRESS IN DURBAN

“Cities we Have vs. Cities we Need” was the theme of the 52nd ISOCARP congress, held in Durban, South Africa. TSPA was part of a keynote panel on the implementation of The New Urban Agenda. Benjamin Scheerbarth reflected on the ways private planning offices might be able to implement sustainable strategies in cities. As possible ways forward he offered (1) to understand a plan not as a final product but as a starting point for dialogue, (2) to design with inbuilt flexibility for future change, (3) to cultivate a dual approach of holistic understanding and acupunctural interventions and to (4) find new ways of organising both spatially and organisationally.

TSPA also presented its paper on UN-Habitat’s Rapid Planning Studio (download paper), a capacity-building workshop, which Thomas and UN-Habitat colleagues conceived as a response to rapid urban growth across the continent.

Planning Africa 2016 in Joburg

The 7th Planning Africa Conference – “Planning Africa 2016 : Making Sense of the Future – Disruption and Reinvention”  took place in Johannesburg, Gauteng Province on 3-6 July 2016, organised by the South African Planning Institute (SAPI). Thomas presented the paper “UN-Habitat’s Rapid Planning Studio: A Case Study of Integrated Planning for City Extensions in Africa” (download paper) together with Gianluca Crispi on a mission financed by UN-Habitat.

The Planning Africa 2016 conference focuses on the role of planning in shaping the future. It is a platform for (re)thinking, discussing and envisaging the outcomes planners desire for the future. The paper and presentation promote and discuss UN-Habitats three-pronged approach and integrated strategy for capacity building to foster sustainable urban development.

There is a general consensus among Among South African planners regarding objectives and principles of planning, yet a widespread frustration as the urban reality including recent developments is far from the consensus on good practice. The discrepancy between the professional discourse and the reality of the context is remarkable.

The paper elaborates the causes of the above-mentioned implementation gap and proposes a potential avenue to address the gap: the Rapid Planing Studio.

Krasnoyarsk: here we come!

TSPA started to work on a major development in Krasnoyarsk, third largest city in Siberia, together with proektdevelopment. The 1300 ha site right on the city edge and surrounded by stunning forests, mountains and wild taiga, will develop into a green mixed use neighbourhood that reflects the demand for more sustainable living models in the capital of the Krasnoyarsk region.

The inception workshop with Monolith Holding takes place in the week from 20 June 2016, and we are excited work with an ambitious team in such a stunning environment!

Yakutsk: towards sustainable arctic cities

Sustainable Life of Arctic cities will be the main topic discussed at the 2nd ‘Cities and People. Local Solutions for Sustainable Development’ International Conference in Yakutsk on June 23- 25. There Thomas speaks about the potential of public space to be a driver for prosperity and higher quality of life in arctic cities.

The Forum serves as an opportunity to reflect on a topic that is becoming more urgent in times ahead: from climate change and the battle for resources to new urbanization trends, the artic region is undoubtedly going to be reshaped. How can we ensure the transformation will benefit the lives of local communities and their habitat? Can we go beyond the idea of the arctic being an area ‘to-be-mined’ for prosperity elsewhere? What role will public space play in this transformation? We will keep you posted!

Mozambique: planning urban corridor

From 4th to 11th of June Thomas was invited to the seminars in the cities of Tete and Nampula, Mozambique. The events are part of a series of workshops guiding the development of the Nacala Corridor, supported by UN-Habitat and Cities Alliance.

One of the issues raised was the need for more tools to operationalize existing plans. The workshop establishes processes and tools to ensure plan implementation following the parameters of their plans.

Riga – The Next Frontier

Riga Faculty of Architecture and Design invited Thomas on June 2nd as a guest critic to participate in the urban studio “Riga – The Next Frontier”, for a site located on the fringe of the historical city centre.

Riga’s built environment features different urban paradigms. While some of its parts seem like Scandinavian villages, some parts remind of Berlin’s Gründerzeit, and – not surprisingly – large parts resemble typical Eastern Bloc suburbs. This enables the city to cater to a variety of generations, users and tastes. The site selected for the design studio resembles Riga’s main urban paradigms and serves as perfect example of a fragmented and heterogeneous neighbourhood, mixing density, style and function.

The Passenger City Workshop Report

The report of The Passenger City workshop held at Augsburg University of Applied Sciences’ International Design Week last year has been released.

CANactions STUDIO#1 results released

CANactions – An Interdisciplinary School for Urban Studies, based in Kyiv, Ukraine has just finished their final report on STUDIO #1 were Thomas was leading a 5-day workshop.

CANactions aims at the exploration of Ukrainian cities, identifying concepts and defining actions for their strategic development. The first Studio, held from August 25 – December 18, 2015, called “From General Plan to Guiding Plan: Strategic Tools for Contemporary Cities Development” was focused on urban development of Ukraine’s historical cities. The purpose of the study is to understand the specificity and strengths of this urban typology – on the local, regional, state and even global level.

To read the STUDIO#1 results please see here.

Rapid Planning Studio in Nampula

From 15th to 18th of February 2016, a UN-Habitat team led another Rapid Planning Studio – this time in Nampula Mozambique. The workshop allowed local planners and leaders to discuss potential development strategies for their rapidly growing city with the UN-Habitat experts.

Nampula – a city with an estimated population of over 600’000 inhabitants – is the capital of Mozambique’s most populous province with more than 4 million inhabitants. The city’s massive in-migration and consequent housing shortage challenges current capacities to manage land effectively.

Addressing the challenges from three standpoints – legislation, finance/economy, and urban planning/design – allowed to deliver informed and feasible outcomes. Thanks to an energetic and collaborative atmosphere among the participants, the workshop successfully promoted more sustainable urban development strategies for Nampula.

 

  • Tacloban pic

Tacloban Urban Lab

Tacloban Urban Lab, jointly prepared by the UN-Habitat Design Lab and the Dutch Creative Industries Fund, took place during the 26th – 29th of January 2016 in the Philippines. It brought together international and local expertise to exchange applied knowledge and create urban design guidelines for the capital of Leyte province. Tacloban – a city of over 200’000 inhabitants – suffered from severe damage after the 2013 Haiyan Typhoon. The Tacloban Urban Lab is thus seen as an opportunity to draft guidelines for more sustainable urban growth and post-disaster reconstruction.

Designing a better urban future” – Urban Planning and Design Labs were established on the 15th of September 2015 by the Dutch Creative Industries Fund and UN-Habitat’s Global Network of Urban Planning and Design Labs. The Tacloban Lab was part of a one year series to support local governments in partner countries such as Myanmar, Mexico, the Philippines, Palestine and Ghana.

“With the planning labs, we promote to integrate design throughout the planning process, since design explorations can actually also contribute to problem definition and goal-setting. And as clear plans ease political buy-in, design also has the capacity to accelerate governments’ decision-making processes where plans often end up in gridlock.” says Rogier van den Berg, project leader of the Urban Planning and Design LAB at UN-Habitat.

Participating experts:

UN-Habitat: Thomas Stellmach, Chris Rolo, David Guera

UN URBAN LABS: STUDIO MAKSMars ArchitectskrillRademacher & De Vries

EXPERTS GROUP MEETING on URBAN LABS

On the 2nd and 3rd day of February Thomas is participating in Barcelona EGM – URBAN LABS: “A tool for integrated and participative urban planning”

A meeting is a chance to exchange methodologies and working principles of different global labs deepening the global debates on urban labs and their methodologies. EGM is hosted by the UN-Habitat Spain and the Ajuntament de Barcelona

Global experts group meeting – new legal frameworks for urban development

From 17th to 19th of December Thomas is going to speak at the UN-Habitat global experts group meeting. In these three days experts will focus on the topic of new legal frameworks for urban development.
The meeting is hosted by the UN-Habitat Spain and Ajuntament de Barcelona.

Book “Interior Tales” published

A new book by Black Square Press about drawings, movies, architecture and the power of narrative with visual essays by 2A+P/A, Fala, Microcities and TSPA.

Interior Tales, edited by Francisco Sanin and Davide Sacconi, is a question on instruments that create a city of nowadays. The book is based on research developed at Syracuse University School of Architecture, London.

“A metabolic process is operating in the city, manipulating and giving form to our own way of dwelling in space before shaping space itself. In such a condition, it is crucial to challenge and rethink the grand modernist project of housing and imagine radical alternatives to the ways in which architects can intervene in the city.”

Get a copy here.

Internship 3D Technology

TSPA is looking for a 3-6 months intern to push the boundaries of innovative 3d technology in the field of urban design. The successful candidate will use Unity3d and Oculus Rift to create immersive virtualisation models of urban designs.

Requirements:

  • interest in 3d technology
  • interest in urban design
  • skilled in auto cad
  • experience with scripting languages
  • experience with Unity3d and game development a plus
  • excellent 3ds max skills
  • fluency in written and spoken English

Please send your application and portfolio to jobs@tspa.eu. The selected candidate is expected to start in December 2015/January 2016.

Integrated Urban Management In Practice

In October 2015 Thomas attended the workshop ‘Integrated Urban Management In Practice’ hosted by the BMBF Research and Development Project „Rapid Planning“ and the GIZ Sector Project „Sustainable Development of Metropolitan Regions“ at Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences as part of a UN-Habitat delegation.

We discussed and evaluated trans-sectoral approaches and implementation activities for integrated urban management.

The Rapid Planning Project is an action oriented research project that has been developed under the umbrella of the Future Megacities Research Program of the German Federal Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF). Rapid Planning seeks to develop a rapid trans-sectoral urban planning methodology with a focus on urban basic services infrastructure, specifically targeting supply and disposal infrastructure. More about the project at rapid-planning.net.

AUGSBURG INTERNATIONAL DESIGN WEEK: WORKSHOP WITH TSPA

How will we move through our future cities? What comes after the superhighway and the failed predictions of jetpacks and moving sidewalks? Benjamin of TSPA will lead the three-day workshop “The Passenger City” at Augsburg University of Applied Sciences from November 11th to 13th, where students will speculate about the future of urban mobility and its impact on both street and city.

The International Design Week offers a wide programme of workshops, lectures, talks and an exhibition to reveal future trends on design and its related disciplines.

 

 

Kiev Workshop: Art Zavod Platforma & CANactions Results

TSPA’s workshop at Kiev’s CANactions School for Urban Studies in Kiev reimagined a former industrial area as a creative cluster. The motto of the workshop — ‘from research to proposal’ — turned out to be very real: The site’s owner was sufficiently impressed by the results that he committed to continue the cooperation and to jointly develop the student’s ideas further to turn them into reality.

Read more about the workshop in the press here [Ukrainian: Пространство для творчества и развития должно быть комфортным] and here [Ukrainian: В Киеве состоялся совместный воркшоп школы CANactions и Арт-завода Платформа].

Many thanks to the Goethe Institute for support and to the CANactions team for organising, and especially to the participants for their great work!

Done that: A new centre for Naberezhnye Chelny

We have completed the strategic masterplan for the new heart of Naberezhnye Chelny. See the project!. Construction will commence in 2016.

Maitland could become the place to be for all African people in Cape Town

How can density become a tool for an inclusive and sustainable Cape Town?

Read Brittany Morris’ interview at future cape town with our colleague Ali Saad on the project we did as Uberbau together with NL-Architects as part of the Density Syndicate initiative.

With an Oculus Rift above the Techno Club

“With the Oculus Rift above the Techno Club” is Jasper Massink’s article about his professional and personal experiences during his internship at TSPA and in Berlin in general. Currently on the title page of archined [Dutch]. Read the full story here: Met de Oculus Rift boven de Technoclub: persoonlijke en professionele ervaringen in Berlijn.

Hey Jasper – we’re glad you survived that night!

TSPA at brand eins

‘Wie willst Du leben?’ (How would you like to live?) is the title of the october issue of the German brand eins economy magazine. TSPA has contributed to Wolf Lotter’s reflection on contemporary living conditions: Room to move.

Isocarp National Delegation Germany

Thomas Stellmach has been voted to form the National Delegation of Isocarp Germany together with Martin Birgel, Stefan Netsch, Peter Droege and Peter Zeile.

51ST ISOCARP CONGRESS

Thomas Stellmach and Benjamin Scheerbarth will travel to Rotterdam for the 51st congress of the International Society of City and Regional Planners ISOCARP. As part of the conference, Thomas will join a workshop in Dortmund on how to leverage economic growth from spatial projects while Benjamin will learn from Schiphol how to best connect airport host cities to the globalised world.

We are looking forward to seeing our colleagues there.

CANactions School for Urban Studies: Studio with TSPA

Thomas of TSPA will lead the project-simulation workshop “From research to project proposal” at CANactions school in Kiev, Ukraine. Students will explore a former factory area in the city and develop solutions to turn it into a creative zone and a catalyst for development of the neighbourhood. The interdisciplinary workshop will take place from 27 September to 3 October 2015, and will rapidly develop a project from analysis to idea and proposal in only a single week to then discuss the proposals with lokal stakeholders.

The CANactions School for Urban Studies is a socially-oriented interdisciplinary educational project that emerged from CANactions International Architecture Festival. It is aimed at the study and strategic development of Ukrainian cities.

More information here: CANactions Brochure [800 KB].

This workshop was made possible with the support of Goethe-Institure Ukraine.

Urban Design in the Arab World

“Aleppo 2025 City Development Strategy: A Critical Reflection” published

Uberbau (from which TSPA emerged) conceived a spatial development strategy for the City of Aleppo commissioned by the German development agency GIZ in 2011. The goal was to develop spatially-driven solutions to guide long-term sustainable development. Thomas Stellmach’s (TSPA) and Ali Saad’s (Bureau Ali Saad) critical reflections on the planning process and the limitations of traditional planning methods in Aleppo and their call to acknowledge existing dynamics as the base for defining future qualities and for steering urban development, have now been published in Ashgate’s Urban Design in the Arab World, edited by Robert Saliba.

Aga Khan Awards Nominator Status

Thomas (TSPA) has been selected as Nominator for the thirteenth cycle of the Aga Khan Awards for Architecture.

Kenya Municipal Plans Review

Thomas of TSPA is giving support to the Sustainable Urban Development Sector in Kenya as part of a multidisciplinary UN-Habitat team. During the last two weeks of August, UN-Habitat will review the Integrated Strategic Urban Development Plans in 12 municipalities, particularly in line with addressing the challenges of urbanization, rapid urban growth and poverty, according to the following clusters:

  1. Mombasa
  2. Malindi /Kitui
  3. Thika/Machakos/Embu
  4. Naivasha/Nakuru/Nyeri
  5. Kakamega/Kericho/Eldoret

The project support of UN-Habitat to the Sustainable Urban Development Sector in Kenya funded by the Embassy of Sweden in Nairobi is premised on the fact that cities in Kenya are growing at an unprecedented rate without adequate urban planning. This contributes to the growing inability of Kenya’s urban areas to adequately provide the necessary urban services and to build sustainable and functioning cities for the future. The situation is exacerbated by the poor coordination of efforts by major urban and development actors in the sector.

Rapid Integrated Spatial Planning Studio at Kogi State, Nigeria

In July, Thomas facilitated as part of a UN-Habitat team a workshop with planning professionals and city leaders in Kogi state, Nigeria discussing the municipal plans of Dekina, Kabba, Okene and Lokoja.

The studio follows UN-Habitat’s three pronged planning approach integrating legal and finance components with planning. It introduced the rapid urban planning method in Nigeria to help local experts and consultants to prepare the foundation of their master plans. This three days long studio will also allow the participants to be engaged in an interactive sessions to address different planning challenges, to chalk out alternatives and to identify possible solutions through a collaborative exercise and dialogue session. At the end of the workshop participants will be able to draw a draft plan that will be analyzed and improved further for official use.

UN-Habitat International Guidelines on Urban and Territorial Planning (IG-UTP) released

In the context of rapid urbanisation and resultant inadequate spatial distribution of people and activities, UN-Habitat has recently released its guidelines on urban and territorial planning, a global reference framework for national governments, local authorities, civil society organizations and planning professionals. The guidelines promote more compact, socially inclusive, better integrated and connected cities and territories that foster sustainable urban development and are resilient to climate change. Their drafting was supported by Thomas (TSPA) along many professionals from around the world.

UN Habitat IG-UTP [9MB]

UN-Habitat Urban Planning and Design Branch Portfolio released

UN Habitat is the United Nations programme which aims to promote socially and environmentally sustainable human settlements development and the achievement of adequate shelter for all. For almost 40 years, UN-Habitat has worked worldwide, focusing on building a brighter future for villages, towns, and cities of all sizes.

Thomas (TSPA) has supported UN-Habitat since 2012, developing planning strategies for sustainable urban development and organizing workshops for planning professionals and city leaders in Kenya, Malaysia, Philippines and Rwanda. See some of his work in Kenya and Rwanda featured in the document.

UN Habitat UPDB Portfolio [15MB]

Urbanfest – forum of lively cities

A few days ago, Thomas traveled to Izhevsk (Russia) to take part in UrbanFest – forum of lively cities. This year the festival gathered delegates from 45 cities across Russia and abroad – urbanists, politicians, businessmen, activists and citizens. Community leaders shared their experience, explored new tools for integrated territorial development and got inspired to create a network of “lively cities” in Russia.
Together with Kees Donkers, Thomas was part of a panel on “Urban planning international experiences applicable to Russia” and led the workshop “International Urban Lab”.
As part of the forum’s programme, TSPA also presented its concept for the development of a new neighborhood in Naberezhnye Chelny to the public. Extending this concept, Thomas discussed constraints of urban planning in Russia and the aspect of possible urban drivers for retaining and attracting young people to the city together with Novaya Zemlya.

Four work spaces at our office available

We’re renting out four table spaces in our beautiful shared office at moritzplatz at Aquacarree above Ritter Butzke.

One of them is available immediately , the others from July 2015.

Monthly rent is 168 EURO excluding VAT. Internet, table, chair, shelf space and cleaning is included, there is storage space and a nice little kitchen.

Address:

Aqua Carree/Room 306/Entrance B

Lobeckstrasse 30-35, 10997 Berlin

Tel: 030 325 19 265

Mail: office@morgen.com.de

Meet our new team members!

As the projects expand, so does the team. We welcome Alexandra and Karina (RU), Cason (US), Benjamin (DE), Jasper (NL), Javier (ES), as well as Luca and Raffaele (IT)!
We are beyond excited to also introduce our CID (chief inspiration director) – sheepcat.

Feel invited to find out more on the new website and to download the new portfolio. Also, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Google Plus. And most modern, call us +49 (30) 5770 6349 2.

So long, all best from Berlin.

Housing vs City – Talk in London

Thomas is going to give a talk at Syracuse, London, next week Monday 13th April at 2pm. See you there!

As communication networks and financial instruments manipulate the social and economic relationships toward unstable and immaterial conditions, the housing crisis is redefining the political and spatial relationship between city, architecture and housing as alternative models of urbanization.
Syracuse Architecture (London Program) invites Brett Steele and five emerging European practices to reflect on how a new generation of architects is facing the challenges of this paradoxical conditions through the construction of a project for architecture and the city..

More at https://www.facebook.com/events/486192094862685/

TSPA to design 73ha city extension in Russia

TSPA has been selected by Talan to design 73 ha of mixed and dense city in the heart of Naberezhnye Chelny in the western part of Russia. The city is one of the largest planned towns in the world related to vehicle production: the Kamaz plant itself is the largest vehicle factory in the world.

We are looking forward to work on the assignment together with our colleagues at Novaya Zemlya in Moscow, Happold Cities and Topotek1 in Berlin.

Open city database

What a great project – repository of open spatial data for cities: http://www.opencitiesproject.org. contribute!

Future City 2015 Initiative

The city isn’t the problem. The city is the solution. [Jamie Lerner]

TSPA is partner of Germany’s science year 2015 initiative with the topic ‘future city‘.

Training for city leaders in Adama, Ethiopia

Above a roadside impression while the UN-Habitat team is on the way to Adama, southeast of Addis Abeba in Ethiopia, to discuss sustainable urban development, planning and public space issues with 40 Ethiopian mayors on 19 & 20 of February. We are promoting an integrated approach, linking urban economy and finance, urban legislation and urban planning. The training is funded by UNDP.

Future Strategies for the Reconstruction of Aleppo’s Centre

Thomas of TSPA participated on the public debate hosted at ANCB to discuss potential future strategies for the reconstruction of Aleppo’s centre. Thomas had supported the spatial component of the city development strategy financed by the giz before the conflict in Syria erupted. The website presenting the CDS is still online.

Good bye Uberbau, hello TSPA

the scoop
Thomas Stellmach Planning and Architecture emerged from Uberbau (RIP and Thank You!) in late 2014. TSPA continues the work in different global contexts and scales, with projects ranging from regional development to neighbourhood transformation across Europe, Asia and Africa.

thus far
The first few months of 2015 have been rich. We are currently masterplanning a 73 ha city extension in Naberezhnye Chelny, Russia while the UN-Habitat consultancy continues with missions to Ethiopia and the Philippines. We also delivered a concept to transform a ‘60s megastructure in Seoul in cooperation with Crosby architects. Meanwhile, the work of TSPA was presented at Syracuse (London) and Urbanfest (Izhevsk).

who (k)new?
As the projects expand, so does the team. We welcome Alexandra and Karina (RU), Cason (US), Ben (DE), Jasper (NL), Javier (ES), as well as Luca and Raffaele (IT)!

Feel invited to find out more on this new website and to download our portfolio in the office section. Also, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Google Plus in the sidebar. And most modern, call us +49 (30) 5770 6349 2.

So long, all best from Berlin.

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Maputo Sixties Modernism

Maputo is one of the cities with the highest concentrations of sixties modernist architecture, if not the highest. Some impressions here, while Thomas is on mission for the UN-Habitat ASUD programme in Mozambique.

Competition Preparations for ASUD Philippines, Manila

Thomas is in the Philippines to develop design briefs for planned city extensions with the municipalities of Cagayan de Oro, Silay, and Iloilo with the support of colleagues from UN-Habitat and Arcadis.

The Density Syndicate, Cape Town

The results of our contribution as part of INTI’s density syndicate will be displayed at the Density Syndicate conference in Cape Town on November 3, 2014.

We have developed a sustainable densification strategy based on the existing mixed and vibrant qualities along the Voortrekker road corridor. Find the full project presentation here.

Support to the UN-Habitat workshop ‘Urban Planning for City Leaders’ in Diani, Kenya

From 11 to 14 November Thomas is part of the UN-Habitat team supporting the sustainable urban development sector in Kenya as part of the Kenyan Municipal Programme (KMP). He will conduct a learning session for decision makers and a two day workshop for planners and municipal staff.

UN-Habitat started training on “Urban Planning for City Leaders (UPCL)” guide as part of its capacity development initiative since September, 2013. Under this initiative, several trainings have been successfully delivered around the world.

The rapid planning studio aims at informing local leaders of each town/county about the value that urban planning could bring to their counties and to facilitate a collaborative dialogue between local leaders, policy makers and planners on urban development especially on the themes of public space, densification, urban patterns, and connectivity including the importance of legal frameworks and urban economy.

Workshop on Territorial Planning for Nacala, Mozambique

Thomas will work with the UN-Habitat team and the colleagues at the University of Maputo on the Territorial Model and city extension plans for Nacala Porto and Nacala Velha in the North of Mozambique from 31 October till 8 November 2014.

Keynote at Open School for Urban Exchange, Krasnoyarsk

On 26 October Thomas will give a talk about the “Right to the City” in Krasnoyarsk at the opening conference of the Open School of Urban Change. He will address questions of ownership of public space, degrees of freedom, privatisation and other challenges of current urban development and how design can encourage participative and diverse use of the the city by the communities.

Urban Planning for City Leaders Workshop, Kuala Lumpur

Thomas will speak at the ‘Urban Planning for City Leaders Workshop’ in Kuala Lumpur. The workshop was organized by CITYNET in collaboration with UN-Habitat and takes place from the 22nd – 25th September 2014.

Rapid Planning Studio in Kenya

From 2 to 5 September Thomas is part of the UN-Habitat team supporting the sustainable urban development sector in Kenya as part of the Kenyan Municipal Programme (KMP). He will conduct a learning session for decision makers and a two day workshop for planners and municipal staff in Nairobi and Naivasha.

UN-Habitat started training on “Urban Planning for City Leaders (UPCL)” guide as part of its capacity development initiative since September, 2013. Under this initiative, several trainings have been successfully delivered around the world.

The rapid planning studio aims at informing local leaders of each town/county about the value that urban planning could bring to their counties and to facilitate a collaborative dialogue between local leaders, policy makers and planners on urban development especially on the themes of public space, densification, urban patterns, and connectivity including the importance of legal frameworks and urban economy.

City Changers. Lecture at German Development Institute, Bonn

Thomas will give a lecture in Bonn on 31 July 2014 at the German Development Institute (DIE): City Changers. Sustainable Urban Development – A Planning Perspective from City-wide Development Strategies to Urban Acupuncture.

Cities and People: Civic Initiatives talk in Yakutsk, Russia

Thomas International conference “Cities and People: civic initiatives – the formula of mutual trust”, which will be held on June 27, 2014 in the city of Yakutsk.

The purpose of the International conference is to study the experience in developing a new model for a modern city having citizens’ active participation. The International conference will be attended by honorary guests, heads of international organizations, delegations from cities of the Russian Federation and the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), representatives of cities-members of the United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG) and sister cities of Yakutsk from other countries as well.

Reality Bites, IUSD Monday Lecture

Thomas presents „reality bites“ taken from his work experience in different cultural contexts – from Iraq to Russia at the University of Stuttgart as part of the Monday lecture series at IUSD. You can also see the video.

The MSc Integrated Urbanism and Sustainable Design (IUSD) offered in Cairo and Stuttgart aims to train a new generation of urban practitioners to face the tremendous environmental, cultural and social challenges resulting from the rapid urbanization and ongoing societal transformation currently taking place in the Middle East, North Africa (MENA) and elsewhere.

Keynote at Urbanfest 2014, Izhevsk

On 21-23 May 2014, Thomas ill be one of the keynote speakers at the International Urban Forum in Izhevsk (translated version), Russia. The urban forum is civic initiative and network of Russian cities to foster innovative solutions for urban development and municipal management for creating better cities and living conditions in the 21st century.

A new Face for Moscow Region

Thomas Stellmach spoke in front of the Supreme Council of the Moscow Region about good regional planning principles on the 28th of February 2014. The region plans to harmonise their planning efforts and the Governor of Moscow Region Andrei Vorobyov together with the Mayors of 72 cities of the region convened in Dmitrov to discuss first steps. Thomas presented TSPA’s approach along with three Russian urbanists. Read more here (English via Google Translate).

Kick-off workshop for good urbanisation in Rwanda

Thomas was invited to support the first of 7 workshops in Kigali (Rwanda) on sustainable urbanisation for secondary cities in Rwanda hosted by UN-Habitat and the Rwanda Housing Authority on the 19th and 20th February 2014. Thomas will discuss UN-Habitat planning principles, urbanisation patterns and reference projects with the mayors and planners from six attending cities.

Bauwelt Cover Story on ‘Metropole Ruhr’

Bauwelt’s cover story features Thomas’ and Ali’s work on Germany’s Detroit – ‘Metropole Ruhr’. In Kiosks this Friday.

Urban Transformation in Nilüfer

The municipality of Nilüfer, Bursa (TK) invited Thomas together with Laura Petrella of UN-Habitat to support the workshop on ‘Developing An Urban Transformation Project in Nilüfer, Bursa’ on 29 and 30 January 2014. We will present the UN-Habitat approach and principles as well as a set of best practices.

UPDATE: You can find a little TV interview with the mayor, Thomas and Laura on local TV and a print interview as also published in Hürriyet newspaper of 9 Feb 2014. Enjoy.

‘Vitalize it’ International Winter School in El Gouna

Thomas Stellmach was invited by the TU Berlin Campus El Gouna (Egypt) to lecture on ‘Public Space in the Arab Domain’ within the framework of the ‘Vitalize it’ International Winter School 2014.

Download the lecture slides here.

Dagestan Agglomeration Plan Competition Jury

Thomas Stellmach is invited as a jury member for the ‘International Competition for a Strategic Vision for Development of Makhachkala-Kaspiysk Urban Agglomeration’ in Dagestan (RU) by the Strategic Council for the President of the Republic of Dagestan. The Jury will select 4 international teams to work on the strategic development plan for the city-region. The other Jury members are Carlos Morales-Schechinger, Uvays Kamalov, Markus Appenzeller, Alexander Boyarinov, Andrey Golovin, Irina Starodubrovskaya, Bulat Stolyarov, Jorgen Andersen, Gökhan Mentes, Jorge Gavidia, and Rumen Kalchev.

UN-Habitat mission to the Philippines, Mozambique, Kenya

Thomas will give a series of workshops as UN-Habitat consultant in the Philippines, Mozambique and Kenya in October and November. The Planning city extensions workshop in Manila on 23-25 October will involve 5 municipalities of the Philippines and focus on a rational ‘Back to the Basics’ approach for sustainable urban development and exemplify UN-Habitat principles. Thomas will also discuss the city-corridor developments and planning progress in Northern Mozambique in the cities of Nampula and Nacala from 3-6 November as part of the ASUD (Achieving Sustainable Urban Development) program.

Netzwertstadt – Final Presentation for Metropole Ruhr Strategic Vision

Together with InD and BGMR, we’ll present our project ‘Netzwertstadt’, a strategic vision for the development of the Ruhrgebiet in Duisburg-Nord on 16 and 17 October as part of the 3rd future forum of the RVR.

See more on the site of the RVR.

Expert Group Meeting “Planning City Extensions – Public and private space for expanding cities”

Thomas was invited to attend the UN Habitat Expert Group Meeting “Planning City Extensions – Public and private space for expanding cities” taking place in Barcelona on 16-18 September 2013. The conference is organized by the Barcelona City Council and UN Habitat to unite international experts from various fields to share their views on proactive, negotiated and guided city extentions in areas of huge urban growth.

More on the UN-Habitat site.

Shortlisted as one of five Teams for ‘Metropole Ruhr’ Vision Competition

We were selected to take part in the ideas competition on a metropolitan vision of the Ruhr region in collaboration with bgmr and InD supported by a range of interdiciplinary consultants. We’ll will join the inception workshop on May 22nd-23rd 2013 in the SANAA Building of the Zeche Zollverein in Essen. The Ruhrgebiet – Germany’s former industrial and mining region – is the largest urban agglomeration in Germany and currently faces huge challenges due to tremendous demographic and economic transformations. A total of five competing interdisciplinary teams were selected that include design offices such as maxwan, studio urban catalyst, yellow Z, Reicher Haase architects, Kengo Kuma associates and West 8. Results are to be expected in October 2013. More info: Webpage Metropole Ruhr (in German).

Zentrale Landesbibliothek Berlin

Berlin Central Library & Neighbourhood Design Awarded

Uberbau (Urban Design) in collaboration with MARS (Architecture) and Treibhaus / Lavaland (Landscape) win one of eight equal prizes in the open international ideas competition ‘Zentral- und Landesbibliothek Berlin’ for Berlin’s new central library and its adjoining city quarter. The new centre at the fringes of the projected city park on the Tempelhof airfield forms part of a larger urban regeneration scheme for the district, including a new quarter around the central library complete with a central city square. The urban design re-interprets the Berlin block and creates a permeable, non-directional public network of small public spaces organised through a mix of building types with a focus on flexible typologies for various uses and users. The library serves as a landmark that contrasts with the monumental wideness of the airfield. Concentrating the building mass into a compact cube frees up space for a public square for a variety of temporary and other uses such as community gardens. The design of the new central library achieves a highly efficient programme that can fulfil long-term logistical and practical demands.

Project documentation on competitionline
Official announcement of the senate of Berlin
Press article, Berliner Zeitung, 22 April 2013

presenting the red ribbon

Europan Germany Inception Forum

Thomas gives an input lecture during the Europan 12 Germany Inception Event, where he discusses the Europan theme ‘Eco Rhythms’ and presents the winning proposal for Europan 10 in Heidelberg.

See the winning project.

Infrastructure Corridor in Mozambique

Thomas travels to Mozambique representing UN-Habitat as urban plnning expert for the ‘Achieving Sustainable Urban Development’ programme in Mozambique. He will discuss planning methodology and institutional set-up regarding the Nacala-Nampula development corridor with the local UN-Habitat team and partners.

CRE200 Stadtplanung published

Chaosradio Express Podcast Folge 200 is online – Tim Pritlove interviews Thomas on urban planning (german language).

Die Städte spielen seit dem Übergang des Menschen von Jäger und Sammler zum Ackerbau die entscheidende Rolle in der Entwicklung der Menschheit und ihre Bedeutung nimmt im 21. Jahrhundert weiter zu.

Städte stehen heute vor der Herausforderung, die großen ökologischen, ökonomischen und gesellschaftlichen Probleme der Zeit abzufedern und neue Innovationen zu gebären, um das Wachstum und den Klimawandel zu bewältigen.

Im Gespräch mit Tim Pritlove erzählt der Architekt und Stadtplaner Thomas Stellmach von der Geschichte der Städte seit dem Alten Orient über die Antike, dem Römischen Reich, dem Mittelalter, dem Barock, der Renaissance bis zur Moderne und schildert die aktuellen Herausforderungen der Stadtplanung.

[download as mp3]

Al-Adhamiya Renewal Strategy awarded in Baghdad

Uberbau’s proposal for the urban renewal of the Al-Adhamiya area in Baghdad, Iraq, was last week awarded the third price in an official ceremony in the prime minister’s office. Thomas Stellmach presented the project which will be further developed in the next phase of the project.

Sustainable Urbanisation in Asia released

Have a look at the latest UN-Habitat publication on how to achieve Sustainable Urbanisation in Asia Thomas contributed to.

Rapid urbanization — together with climate change — is emerging as the most challenging issue of the twenty-first century. As the region with the highest percentage increase in urban population over the last two decades, Asia faces fundamental economic, social and environmental challenges to its continued development. However, well planned and effectively governed and managed cities can provide the solution to many of these challenges. With the right economic policies and more equitable growth, poverty and slum reduction are achievable goals. Putting cities on the right path now can result in thriving, dense, green, resilient and sustainable cities.

[PDF download 4.5MB]

Greater Kampala Metro Area Plan Support

Thomas represents UN-Habitat in Kampala from 8-11 December 2012 to initiate support for the Goverment of Uganda for the new Metropolitan Plan for Greater Kampala regarding spatial planning and institutional coordination.

Achieving Sustainable Urban Development in Philippine Cities

Thomas is on a 2 week mission in the Philippines to initiate the ASUD (Achieving Sustainable Urban Development) programme for UN-Habitat. He meets stakeholders and project partners in Manila and discusses planning procedures in Butuan and Cagayan de Oro with the local government.

De Wereld van Witte de With 2012 in Rotterdam

Thomas and Ali of Uberbau are invited artists at the International Arts Festival De Wereld van Witte de With 2012 in Rotterdam curated by Lukas Feireiss. They’ll exhibit two timelines on streets in western countries in general and on Rotterdam’s Witte de Withstraat in specific, hold a workshop on “The Missing Street” and organize “Street Talks” with various experts. Join us from September 14th to 16th 2012 on the Witte de Withstraat in Rotterdam! [read on at the festival site]

UN-Habitat Mission to Rwanda

From 23 July to 8 August Thomas is on mission to Rwanda for UN-Habitat. He advises the City of Kigali and the Rwanda Housing Authority on National Urban Policy and several city extension projects in Kigali and other cities.

Aga Khan Award – Emerging Models of Planning Practices Conference

On 19-21 July Thomas is invited to the Aga Khan Award for Architecture Seminar on “Emerging Models of Planning Practices” in Singapore. We’ll discuss integration of mobility, energy, water and waste disposal into planning practice, the role of educational institutions in the life of a city and the effects of art, culture and sport on planning strategies.

Re-Conceptualizing Boundaries @ AUB, Beirut

On 3-5 May Thomas presents the Aleppo Diverse | Open City project at the City Debates 2012. Re-Conceptualizing Boundaries: Urban Design in the Arab World conference at the AUB in Beirut.

The project will be part of a publication on the conference to be released in 2015.

Capita Selecta

On 12 April at 8pm Thomas talks about recent work experiences in Africa, Asia and Europe at Capita Selecta: ‘Giant Steps: Urbanism Around the World’ hosted by the Academie von Bouwkunst in Amsterdam.

ZiL Pioneer awarded in Moscow

Uberbau is selected as one of two finalists for the AMO-ZiL competition. Ali presented “ZIL Pioneer” to an international jury and to Deputy Mayor Andrei Sharonov in Moscow on Friday, March 2nd, 2012. The proposal suggests the transformation of the centrally located, 280ha industrial site into a pioneering urban centre for Moscow. Among other contributions by Dutch office Mecanoo, French office Valode & Pistre and Russian office Project Meganom, Uberbau and Project Meganom were selected to further develop their proposals and to present them to Moscow’s Mayor in the coming months.
Have a look at the project.