Resurge: Paradise Engineering

In the project, we are applying the principle of superposition to build within the existing environment while acknowledging the coexistence of work and life within a given space. The idea is that everything, both material and immaterial, found in a place is a resource we can work with. The project prioritises the right to the city for every inhabitant.

The plot is on Köpenicker Strasse in Berlin, bordering Friedrichshain and Mitte, right by the Spree river. It is a remand of the area's industrial past and is caught in conflicts between investors, citizens resisting privatisation, and reactionary politics.?In our proposal, we aimed to keep. To keep the activities as far as possible, keep the resources already there, but also introduce housing as the future development of the plot is outlined. To make that possible, the superposition was a clear answer. Tables to build on and bridges to live on. The relation to the sky. The clear axis, the visual contact. Windows formed between houses—courtyards with no walls. One might walk under bridges, over bridges over water, plants, and trucks. The inhabitant is witness to daily life, different versions of it. One could have a garden at 12,5 meters above the ground, a second ground, with neighbors passing along above. Our structure's foundation relies on concrete tables necessary for fire protection. On top of these tables, a steel system with wood inlays will create a spanning floor, while a bridge will connect two tables, and housing passages will hang below it. We designed the concrete system with modularity in mind, allowing for potential future reuse while safeguarding against hazards on the ground. Everyone has a right to the city; it should nourish us all and serve as a resource for our basic needs when moving around the town. We arrange the public space on this basis. It is in this step a collision with the city—we ad sources, like water, toilets, roofs, a little landscape or an empty square. The juxtaposition and superposition of these qualities and differences are similar to the “social condenser”, an attempt to offer. The right to the city led us to the right for equal water access, rain usage and the accessibility of the river and its shoreline. The drought in the summer of 2022, and of course, the overall duration of nature, brought water to the centre of our minds and the importance of hydrological thinking and adaptation as a tactic to minimize water usage, to strike heat islands and growths, to bloom like in an oasis.