Architecture student won the first prize of the Gaudi Architecture Prize in the Urban Housing Category

Congratulations to our Alumni, Moritz Felix Maier on wining the first prize of the Gaudi Architecture Prize in the Urban Housing Category!

Gaudi Architecture Award

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Award: First Prize in the Urban Housing Category

Gaudi Architecture Prize is an international design award programme held by the Silk Matters organization from the 10^th July 2020 to 1^st November 2020 with the aim of providing a platform for un-built, conceptual, and academic design projects. The award is divided into Architecture, Urbanism, Interior Design and Furniture Design Categories and received submissions from 52 countries.

Title: Berlin Anti Wall
Thesis Supervisor: A/P Dr Cho Im Sik
Project Cluster: Urban Commons

Abstract on Berlin Anti Wall

Thirty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, a social gap remains between the population of former East- and West Germany. The cold war had turned the two countries into enemy states and a common ground could not be found after the reunion. Being the political center of the separation, the attempts in Berlin to create a new identity for the reunited city backfired and exacerbated the underlying social division. The Berlin Wall, being the symbol and epicenter of physical and political division, manifested into the “Wall in the Head” that now represents the insurmountable differences between the former populations.

Based on this context, the thesis project proposes the Anti-Wall typology, a prototype for an urban infrastructure that utilises solar energy harvesting as a starting point for the establishment of commons and the empowerment of citizens in the creation of a shared city. Implemented in neighborhoods still suffering from the former division, those urban commons could initiate a process to overcome social gaps and foster cohesion amongst the people of Berlin.

Infrastructure for Cooperation:

The Anti-Wall consists of a series of solar energy farms leased out to local citizen groups centering around shared interests. Each farm contains all the necessary tools to be maintained by layman without specialised training. The communal management of the energy plant will create a sense of community and establish a practice of cooperation among each group.

Shared Spaces and Emancipation:

The financial revenue earned from solar harvesting can be used to transform each solar farm into shared residential and economic spaces. The transformation of each cluster is based on a kit of components for the citizen groups to choose from. Guided by rules on macro, meso and micro scale, each individual space and component can be configured with a maximum amount of freedom. As more profit is earned over time, shared communal spaces can be inserted within and between the clusters in an incremental process.

New urban commons and Expansion:

New members can join the clusters as they expand over time and solar farms can be constructed in other parts of the city. Collaboration in the creation of a shared city will eventually transform the Anti-Wall prototypes into urban commons and create spatial and social connection for the people of Berlin.