Better big? Residential construction on a larger scale does not usually have a good reputation. However, it is clear that new living space is needed, especially in cities. In addition, the aspect of sustainability in construction is becoming increasingly important. You can find out whether large-scale residential construction can offer a solution to these challenges in the August issue. Read more in the editorial by Editor-in-Chief Fabian Peters.

Better big? Residential construction on a larger scale does not usually have a good reputation. However, it is clear that new living space is needed in cities in particular. In addition, the aspect of sustainability in construction is becoming increasingly important. You can find out whether large-scale residential construction can offer a solution to these challenges in the August issue. Read more in the editorial by Editor-in-Chief Fabian Peters.

Lack of living space

“We need to build more apartments!” This is apparently the majority opinion among politicians. The not-so-new German government has taken up this goal and written it into the coalition agreement. “We must hardly build any more, if at all”, say climate researchers and environmental activists, referring to the enormous amounts of energy consumed in the process. One thing is certain: If the answer to the lack of living space in metropolitan areas, especially affordable living space, can only be new construction, then small apartment buildings or even single-family homes will not be an option. We need to plan and build in large formats. And as little energy as possible must be used in the process. This can be achieved by using sustainable materials and building as efficiently as possible. Industrial construction methods could play a key role in the future.

The fate of large buildings

Industrial construction? For many, the images of large housing estates in both East and West immediately spring to mind. In West Germany, these neighborhoods were the epitome of social hotspots – and in many cases still are today. Much has now been achieved through neighborhood management. Nevertheless – whether Chorweiler, Neuperlach, Gropiusstadt or Märkisches Viertel, these are addresses that still have a stigma attached to them. Can new large-scale residential buildings escape the fate of their predecessors from the sixties and seventies? Or will we have a new Pruitt-Igoe moment in 25 years’ time?

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Building on a larger scale as a solution to the lack of living space?

For this issue, we looked at different concepts for large-scale residential construction, talked to experts about technologies and strategies, and looked at projects and experiences in our neighboring countries France, Austria and the Netherlands. Whether we want to create more living space in the future in the form of large-scale residential construction and to what extent – this is a discussion we will have to have intensively in the coming years.

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Our South Tyrol issue was published in July, in which we looked at new buildings in rural areas and the conversion of historic buildings. Read more here: South Tyrol

An exhibition on Roger Boltshauser opens in Stuttgart’s Weißenhofsiedlung at the beginning of March. His work combines art, design and building as well as a passion for clay as a material.

An exhibition on Roger Boltshauser opens in Stuttgart’s Weißenhofsiedlung at the beginning of March. His work combines art, design and building, as well as a passion for clay as a material.

“If you could eat it, you’d call it superfood.” This is how the organizers whet the appetite for the exhibition on Roger Boltshauser and his clay architecture. It should be sufficiently well known by now that clay is a moisture buffer and fire protection, has a balancing effect on the indoor climate, keeps wooden structures dry, can be found almost everywhere in the world and is easy to work with. And yet we cannot talk enough about this building material and promote it.

An exhibition in Stuttgart does the same and shows the work of Swiss architect Roger Boltshauser, who works a lot with clay construction. For him, it is “a kind of fundamental experience” that still spurs him on today, makes him courageous, but also critical of all conventions and constantly drives him to find new solutions. Boltshauser then became known to a wider circle in 2008 when he and Martin Rauch built the latter’s single-family house from rammed earth in Vorarlberg (Baumeister 7/2009). At the time, it was still said that they were building “at their own risk”, a test building. The realization required ten to twenty times less energy than a conventional concrete or brick building. However, the amount of work involved was very high.

Some clients are now also enthusiastic about earth building, and a few larger earth buildings have already been built – such as the Ricola Herbal Center by Herzog & de Meuron or the Alnatura office building by Haas Cook Zemmrich. Boltshauser is working on a number of promising research projects and is also planning large buildings made of rammed earth. In his opinion, the future belongs to intelligent hybrid constructions. His colleague Martin Rauch is convinced that the next decade will be an era of earth building. It brings a new aspect of responsibility to planning and building – “simply building, putting perfectionism into perspective”, as he puts it(Baumeister 6/2021).

In this respect, one can never make enough pleas for earth building – as the architect will certainly do in his opening speech at the Weißenhofsiedlung in Stuttgart next Wednesday. The exhibition on Boltshauser aims to show that in his work, art, design and construction combine in “constant parallel processes”. Some of his collage sketches will therefore also be on display. Ultimately, it is clear that Roger Boltshauser is concerned at all levels with the search for an authentic answer.

From 2 March to 23 April 2023 at the Architekturgalerie am Weißenhof | Stuttgarter Weißenhofsiedlung, Am Weißenhof 30, Stuttgart | Curated by Roger Boltshauser with Atelier Andrea Gassner | Organized by Kyra Bullert | Exhibition design: Atelier Andrea Gassner | Vernissage: Wednesday, 1 March 2023, 7 pm: Lecture by Roger Boltshauser in the lecture hall Neubau 2

By the way, also in Stuttgart: an eyewear store with panache