Valerie Fuß

The BuchArt project aims to repurpose and revitalize the former machine house in Berlin-Buch. It is part of the heritage-protected Buch factory, which served as a supply center for the local sanatoriums for many years. Our project will transform the building into a contemporary space that combines living, working, and exhibiting.

The concept is to use the building as a residency program in which artists live in shared apartments in the house, work in studios, and exhibit in the BuchArt gallery. The project is complemented by a café that serves as a meeting place during the day and transforms into an event space and bar in the evening.

The architectural approach is characterized by a minimally invasive intervention in the existing structure. New elements are added in an independent architectural language characterized by a steel profile polycarbonate construction. This construction principle deliberately sets itself apart from the historic building structure while at the same time referring to its industrial past.

The result is a spatial concept that transforms the machine house into a contemporary form of mixed use and secures a new cultural reference point for Berlin-Buch.

Understanding and implementing the concept of democracy as a structure was the central task of the module.

For us, democracy meant coming into contact with one another and creating an open, transparent sense of space. The location of our social forum also plays an important role in this: situated in the middle of Spreebogenpark, between the main train station and the Paul Löbe House, the property is a highly frequented and symbolic location. The architecture of the surrounding area is characterized by government institutions, monumental buildings, and expansive open spaces—an area of tension that we wanted to address in our design.

Our design envisages an open building with various publicly accessible uses. The core of the building is a 10x10-meter room that offers space for events and extends up to the roof. Surrounding terraces allow for constant transparency between the interior and exterior. This is complemented by a walk-on roof that not only serves as a viewing platform but also as an additional lounge area, as well as a small kiosk with a café.

The interior is based on a wooden post-and-beam system with a lightweight wooden beam and glass roof construction. This is stabilized by a single-axis steel tension rod structure. Outside, a wooden beam grid spans cross-section steel supports, giving the building a clear structure. To break up the strict geometry and enhance the quality of the space, curved textile sails complement the structure, offering protection from the sun while creating a soft, dynamic atmosphere.

Our design thus combines a clear, constructive design language with an open, democratic usage concept, while at the same time blending sensitively into the existing landscape.

Kleinebersdorf is a municipality in Thuringia that you might drive past. But there is a barn tower there that caught our attention. We couldn't enter, we had no plans, we had to approach this anonymous architecture purely on historical and constructive assumptions. This resulted in the Bird Residency, a tower that combines living and working with birds. A small kitchen with living area, a bathroom and a bedroom are spread over the three floors of the tower. The rooms are accessed via a covered staircase that rises behind the tower. As the floor plan only measures around 4 ㎡, a large part of life takes place outside and around the tower. The staircase includes two extensions containing a research laboratory and an observation station. They reflect the imagined construction of the barn tower and create a roofed outdoor space that forms an open counterpart to the spatially unusual tower.

Why birds, actually? A bird-obsessed professor who pursued his bird research in the Kleinebersdorf area and an animal museum in the neighboring village inspired us to give the barn tower this special use.

This design was part of the "Anonymous Architectures" project, in which we dealt with various existing architectures without a plan basis in the Module.