R50 - cohousing in Berlin-Kreuzberg is a joint building venture project with 19 apartments and shared spaces. The concrete structure and modular timber facade were specifically designed for this building, allowing a direct dialogue between architecture and use. The compact and efficient design process involved extensive participation and led to agreements on shared spaces, including an urban garden, access ramp, laundry, workshop, and roof terrace. The building offers low-cost and adaptable housing with a sustainable approach to urban living, integrating into the existing fabric.

R50 - cohousing is a joint building venture project in Berlin-Kreuzberg. It was initiated by the architects during the course of a concept-based award procedure for building plots and implemented in close cooperation with the clients. The building proposal is founded on a clear urban design position, robust and precisely detailed architectural design, and both a collective and individual process of occupancy.

The detached building is surrounded by various housing concepts characteristic of Berlin’s post-war period. It has six full storeys, a basement and an attic. It comprises three blocks with 19 individual apartments, one studio and various shared spaces. Underneath is a double-height, flexible community space which connects the building’s main access with the public street space. It is made available for neighbourhood groups and other public uses. The reinforced concrete structure was designed to minimum requirements. Combined with the reduced and partly exposed infrastructure, the modular timber facade with fixed and flexible, outward opening glazed door elements was specifically developed for this building. This combined with the all-around balconies on each level allows a direct dialogue between the building’s architecture and its use.

Meeting the owners’ aspiration for collective and affordable living and working, the architectural concept is based on a compact and efficient structure with carefully detailed connections on different scales. It is based on a concrete skeleton with one access and two service cores, an independent timber facade and a suspended steel construction for the all-around balconies. A slightly sunken basement level provides access to the building and merges private and public spaces. Each apartment and all additional community spaces were developed by an intensive process of consultations, discussions and design. Based on the structural framework the sizes of apartments could be determined and individual requirements accommodated in the floor plans. In parallel to this process, a common standard for fixtures and fittings was developed and defined, which has resulted in a collective approach to interior fittings, the use of materials and some surfaces left unfinished, whilst allowing individual layouts of the apartments.
This kind of structured yet open design process has not only allowed for extensive participation, self-directed design and self-building, but has also led to mutual agreement on the type, location, size and design of spaces shared by residents. This includes the generous urban garden, which naturally blends into the landscape of the surrounding 1960s residential neighbourhood, an access ramp leading to a covered area in front of the basement, a laundry, a workshop and a roof terrace with a summer kitchen and a winter garden. The all around balconies accompany the bright interior spaces and connect the apartments on each floor.

Plot 2,056 m2
GFA 2,780 m2
Net usable space 2,311 m2
Living space 2,158 m2
Community space 122 m2
All-around balconies 462 m2
Roof terrace 38 m2

R50 cohousing is a new model typology for low-cost and affordable housing offering a maximum capacity for adaptation and flexibility throughout its lifetime. Social, cultural, economic and ecological aspects have been considered equally to define a contemporary sustainable approach to urban living. The limit set by German Energy Saving Regulations (EnEV 2009) was reduced by 30%. Another essential aspect of sustainability is the building’s particular ability to integrate into the existing urban fabric.

This project aimed to create a building group at the former Berlin flower market, offering owner-occupied artists' workshops, apartments, cooperative housing, and studios. The architects ifau and HEIDE & VON BECKERATH collaborated with Selbstbaugenossenschaft Berlin eG to provide live and work units for artists and creative professionals. The site's central location and low land price allowed for cross-subsidization, enabling low rents for cooperative spaces. The building's layout and design were developed collaboratively with the building group, incorporating communal facilities. The architectural concept included horizontal access cores, atriums, and flexible floor plans to meet occupants' needs. The building utilized cost-efficient prefabricated components and environmentally sustainable materials. The design also allowed for future conversion, retrofitting, and adaptation. The project included 66 apartments, 17 studios, and three commercial units designed to accommodate individual preferences.

Owner-occupied artists’ workshops and apartments, cooperative housing and studios, space provision for social associations and commerce were part of the programme, which would establish a new building group and hence lay the foundation for the residential and studio building at the former Berlin flower market. The main idea for the project, which was initiated by the architects ifau and HEIDE & VON BECKERATH in cooperation with the Selbstbaugenossenschaft Berlin eG, was to offer a mix of live and work units that would meet the needs of artists and creative professionals. The starting point for the building’s layout and design was a collaborative and socially mixed utilisation concept. Moreover, the comparatively low land price allowed the cross-subsidisation of cooperative residential and studio spaces within the project, which can be let at a sustainable low rent. The decision-making process determining the development of a binding standard for fittings and the type and position of several communal facilities took place in close collaboration with the building group.

The site’s central location near Friedrichstraße suggests that the present mix of uses, which includes inexpensive housing in the neighbourhood, is at risk in the foreseeable future. To redress this trend a concept-linked award procedure was launched for the flower market site and an innovative multi-stage qualification process was developed, whose aim was to support the ongoing project and assure the quality of architecture and urban development. The architectural concept is based on three connected horizontal access cores as well as the relation between the building envelope and five internal atriums. These parameters describe and inform the type of units and integrate the building into the neighbourhood. The access at ground level accommodates access to various studios, a garden, communal utility rooms and a basement. The access on level 1 is linked to green atriums and provides access to apartments on two levels. Another access route is situated on level 4 as well as a shared space and a roof terrace. All apartments and studios can be combined and some of them even linked directly in the design development stage to adapt the spatial concept to the occupiers’ needs. The structure is a combined cross-wall and column construction. The underlying principle is that units in the centre of the building are arranged in modules over a depth of 23 m while units at the ends of the building relate to their surroundings. All ground floor spaces are transparent and can be extended into the adjacent public areas. The building envelope combines ceramic elements, windows and fixed glazing in its facade. Generous prefabricated balconies are situated in the south and west. The building is designed with cost-efficient prefabricated components and could be mostly constructed to the energy efficiency standard 70 of the German Energy Saving Ordinance using mainly environmentally sustainable building materials. Access concepts and floor plans are flexible to accommodate possible conversion and retrofitting as well as adaptation to changing demands. The design of the floor plans for the 66 apartments is both demand-based and user-oriented. Seventeen studios and three commercial units are designed as blanks so that the different needs of individual occupants can be incorporated in the standard of fittings.

"Wohnregal" is a 6-story structure in Berlin that houses affordable live/work ateliers. It utilizes pre-fab concrete elements commonly found in industrial construction, providing cost and time savings. The ateliers have varied layouts thanks to the absence of interior structural walls, and sliding glass doors on the east and west façades can be opened to create a loggia-like environment. The building promotes a diverse range of lifestyles and addresses the complexity of inhabitation often overlooked in serial construction. With its efficient construction and adaptable design, it offers long-term resilience and potential for repurposing. The absence of mechanical climate control is compensated by natural ventilation, contributing to a comfortable living environment.

“Wohnregal” houses life/work ateliers. It´s based on pre-cast concrete elements common in industrial construction and bridges two challenges. It applies serial construction to save cost and time. At the same time it counters preconceptions that seriality always implies uniformity of the units thus addressing an ever broadening scope of lifestyles.

The term Wohnregal translates into “habitable rack”. It is a 6-story structure based on pre-fab concrete elements commonly used in industrial construction. The rack houses affordable ateliers which are renegotiating the relationship of live and work environments. There are two units per floor – oriented east and west. An open staircase along the north façade provides access. The ateliers vary greatly between 35 and 110 sqm. Thanks to the principle of the pre-fab rack spanning from façade to façade without interior structural walls they can each have a different plan layout. Sliding doors appropriated as a curtain wall constitute the east and west façades. They allow for the interior to be opened up during the summer, allowing natural ventilation turning the interior spaces into loggias. The building is situated in a corner lot in Berlin Moabit left unbuilt since the war.

“Wohnregal” uses pre-cast concrete elements common in industrial construction. It bridges two contradictory challenges of the Berlin housing market. Pre-fabrication offers cost and time savings thus addressing the rising construction cost. Countering preconceptions that serial construction always implies a standardization of the units themselves, the project offers a wide range of different live/work ateliers for an ever-broadening scope of life styles. The ceilings spanning between the facades without any interior structural support enable this flexibility.

Prefabrication in housing has been a century-long story of optimization, and has had a continuous up and down of promises stated and promises broken. The “Wohnregal” takes into consideration this contradictory history of prefabricated construction. It re-appropriates the DNA of the prefabricated warehouse which has taken the approach of optimization to its absolute limits. While exploiting that very economy it also reinterprets its structural openness to introduce a discourse that has been strangely absent in the focus on prefabrication: the complexity and variety of inhabitation. The industrial construction of the “Wohnregal” consists of pillars, beams and TT-ceilings. The latter span from façade to façade economically. All interior walls are built using drywall construction. The lack of any structural members in the interior allows for different layouts an every floor. The construction is very economical (1500 EUR/sqm) and fast (6 weeks for the assembly of the complete prefab structure).

The curtain wall consisting of sliding glass doors allows for the interior to be opened up to its surroundings during the spring and summer months, turning the living space into a loggia-like environment. There are no means of mechanical climate control in the building, as the natural breeze creates a comfortable climate even during summer days.

The rack structure of the “Wohnregal” offers a great degree of long-term resilience. The interior can be repurposed for different uses in the decades to come. This openness implies a longevity and thus sustainability of the structure. Almost all components of the building have been mechanically connected. In the case of the future disassembly all materials can be separated out and become part of a circular economy.