Duration: October 2022 - March 2024

Funding body: New European Bauhaus

Centered around the New European Bauhaus Project „NEBourhoods”, in the context of the subproject 5.1 „Reprogramming Private Public Spaces“, the research deals with the question how obsolete urban office complexes – the everyday architecture of globalization – can become productive, mixed-use, and publicly accessible elements of the city in the time of multiple ecological and social crises. Formerly largely closed off to the public, the change of the urban function of these buildings, combined with their massive floor areas, could become decisive agents of change in making European cities more resilient in the current situation. Besides the practical implications that are in the foreground of the NEB effort, the project will also contribute to more knowledge about a type that is still largely under-researched in urban design.

The study centers on two office complexes in Neuperlach in the East of Munich, which are part of the legacy of a large insurance company. One of the buildings is currently already temporarily used under the name “shaere” (www.shaere.net). In the course of the project, the two buildings and their urban surroundings are analyzed, proposals developed, and made applicable for other contexts as well. To achieve this, the research project is conducted in several phases, all of them closely connected to teaching formats at the professorship.

Phase 1: Understanding 
- Seminar "The XXL Office Complex 
- Master's thesis NPL

Phase 2: Design
- "Intervention class NPL" - Bachelor Thesis
- "Egalitarian NPL" - BA Studio 4th semester
- "Reprogramming the urban office complex" - MA Studio
- "Urban Fest NPL" 

Phase 3: Dissemination 
- Publication series TOUCH - Tactics of Urban Change
- Further papers and conference contributions