The single-family home is the most popular form of housing in Germany, with 53% of people wishing to live in a single-family home. At the same time, it is also the most common form of housing: more than 16 million houses make up around half of the housing stock. Despite the fact that each of these homes is occupied by just 1.8 people on average, the number of single-family homes is rising continuously, by an average of around 100,000 per year over the last 20 years. However, in view of the climate crisis, the shortage of living space and more diverse lifestyles, the most popular form of housing is being criticized: the associated consumption of materials, energy and space is too high and its spatial and ownership structures are too inflexible.

Against this backdrop, the Co-MaKaBi design studio at TU Berlin sees the future of single-family homes not in new construction, but in sharing and transforming what is already their own. To this end, the students first examined the qualities of the existing buildings and everyday practices of sharing in Germany's largest single-family housing area in the Berlin districts of Mahlsdorf, Kaulsdorf and Biesdorf (MaKaBi) in order to identify the potential for dense, lively and communal living.

On this basis, expanded and more open models of living together were subsequently developed in consultation with residents, based on the sharing and joint use of spaces and social services. Spatial concepts were developed for selected settlement areas that enrich the existing buildings with new programs, community functions and forms of living. One self-imposed task here was to avoid new soil sealing. Particular attention is paid to robust and flexible spatial solutions that are combined with energy-efficient renovation concepts. Community ownership and financing models are proposed as alternatives to private housing.

The aim of the design project is to develop long-term and practical solutions that reduce per capita resource consumption and at the same time increase the socio-spatial quality. Compared to new construction, the practice of transforming existing single-family homes requires a different set of tools, ideas and knowledge, which will be shared as part of the exhibition. Single-family homes for all! is a conversion laboratory for the question: How can existing single-family housing estates become a model space for a new, urgently needed conversion practice and thus also the subject of critical architectural discussion and practice?

Location:

Architecture Gallery Berlin
Karl-Marx-Allee 96
10243 Berlin

www.architekturgalerieberlin.de