Eco-Houses

A model for reconnecting ecological and economical parameters in a building system

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Eco-Houses

Eco-Houses, Still from Vertical Street by © Meghan Rolvien2038 German Pavilion at the 17th International Architecture Exhibition — La Biennale di Venezia

Ferdinand Ludwig & Daniel Schönle, Architects & Baubotaniker

"Thinking in fixed objects is much riskier than thinking in open processes. Fixed entities remove all possibilities for future change and are unable to adapt the past."

Eco-Houses, Still from Vertical Street by © Meghan Rolvien2038 German Pavilion at the 17th International Architecture Exhibition — La Biennale di Venezia

Realized in the context of the international building exhibition (IBA-Neu) in Berlin, “Eco-Houses” can be understood as a strategy for increasing buildable land in the city. Concrete frames with two plateaus, each at a height of 6 and 12 meters, are built around 25 trees. 

Architecting Space & Time: Highrise of Homes by James Wines and Maison Dom-Ino by Le Corbusier by © Cornelia Müller in Dialogic City — Berlin wird Berlin2038 German Pavilion at the 17th International Architecture Exhibition — La Biennale di Venezia

The over-dimensioned support structure allows future residents to build their units individually. Installation shafts run along the pillars that carry the structural load into point foundations, in order to reduce the footprint on the ground. 

Eco-Houses, Still from Vertical Street by © Meghan Rolvien2038 German Pavilion at the 17th International Architecture Exhibition — La Biennale di Venezia

The special features of this project, besides the support structure, were the consideration of ecological construction methods for each house and the insertion of the project on an ecologically valuable plot of land.

Architecting Space & Time: Eco-Houses building scheme without units by © Cornelia Müller in Dialogic City — Berlin wird Berlin2038 German Pavilion at the 17th International Architecture Exhibition — La Biennale di Venezia

After contructing the concrete framework, Frei Otto handed over the planning responsibility to the users, who then started to build the 18 housing-units themselves or commissioned other architects to do it.

Eco-Houses, Still from Vertical Street by © Meghan Rolvien2038 German Pavilion at the 17th International Architecture Exhibition — La Biennale di Venezia

Managed by many different agents, the construction required a lot of coordination, which lead to high costs. Due to a lack of legislative and contractual tools, the management of the common structures, like the concrete frame and stairs, resulted in conflicts. 

Eco-Houses, Still from Vertical Street by © Meghan Rolvien2038 German Pavilion at the 17th International Architecture Exhibition — La Biennale di Venezia

The "Eco-Houses" illustrate how individual housing is possible even in a multi-storey building, without compromising on collective or ecological aspects. The project serves as a successful solution to the exiling of single-families to Berlin's outskirts. 

Eco-Houses, Still from Vertical Street by © Meghan Rolvien2038 German Pavilion at the 17th International Architecture Exhibition — La Biennale di Venezia

Moreover the collective design process was a positive attempt at questioning the often one-dimensional roles of both architects and inhabitants in the building process.

Eco-Houses, Still from Vertical Street by © Meghan Rolvien2038 German Pavilion at the 17th International Architecture Exhibition — La Biennale di Venezia

Ferdinand Ludwig & Daniel Schönle, Architects & Baubotaniker

"It took us 30 years to shift our way of understanding and to find out that these systems, technically and ecologically, are nested within each other on very different scales of space and time."

A special thanks to Meghan Rolvien for participating in the project and further for providing the photographic material for this project.

Credits: Story

2038 is a non-profit company with the goal to promote architectural discourse across disciplinary boundaries. 2038 talks to experts from various fields and shares their views and opinions, in partly edited form. 2038 does not claim the approaches, contents and theses of the experts and does everything to quote and name them correctly and in detail. Should this exceptionally not be the case, just write us an email (press@2038.xyz) and we will immediately update the information accordingly.
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Text / Concept / Realisation: Olaf Grawert, Angelika Hinterbrandner and Jonas Janke 
Editing: Michaela Friedberg 

© 2038 
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