Victoriastadt Bougruppe
Social Housing Complex
Spring 2016 with Michael Deitz
Across the globe, rent prices are rising and finding affordable housing is becoming increasingly more difficult. Recently, Berlin has found a solution that significantly cuts costs while giving residents the freedom to make their own specific design choices. A baugruppe (building group) is a group of individuals who have joined their financial resources and efforts to build an apartment building according to their desires and at a reasonable price. The residents purchase a site, hire an architect to translate these desires to a building design, and bypass the developer costs that are associated with traditional residential units. In turn, the collective design process brings together individuals who have the same end goal and ultimately creates a new community all living under the same roof.
Located in Berlin’s Victoriastadt, this project includes individual units as well as a variety of communal spaces for families of one to eight members that are connected by an external circulation terrace. Twelve sectionally complex units, each with their own private outdoor space, fit together like puzzle pieces, offering an incredibly flexible design process that allows the clients and architect to turn, flip, and move each unit into its desired location in any of the three structural bays. Much like the clients would have, Michael and I spent countless hours rearranging the puzzle pieces to create the final product.
Through this collective design experience, the Victoriastadt Baugruppe promotes a community-driven lifestyle while significantly decreasing the costs of living.