The Haus der Statistik is a GDR-era office building from the 1970s in Alexanderplatz, previously destined for demolition. During the 1990s and early 2000s, the building fell into a state of neglect. Various proposals for its redevelopment were discussed, but none came to fruition, and the building remained unused, becoming a symbol of post-reunification challenges in urban planning and development. In the late 2010s, a significant shift occurred driven by community and cultural stakeholders. Artists, cultural organisations, and local activists recognised the potential of the building as a space for creative and community-driven uses. They began advocating for its preservation and redevelopment. Responding to this grassroots movement, the City of Berlin took a more active role in the redevelopment process. There is currently a revitalisation initiative for the building, envisioning and negotiating its conversion into a mix of affordable living and working spaces. 

Hammarby Sjöstad is a district with low environmental impact in Stockholm developed from a former industrial area. The project, initiated in the 1990s, follows a holistic approach towards systems stewardship, including solid waste, water, transportation and energy systems. Hammarby Sjöstad serves as an international model for sustainable neighbourhood design. 

Test Site is a collaborative community-based project that enables public engagement with architecture, ecology, sustainable urban landscapes and community-organized events. The project takes a vacant site in Kyrl’s Quay, Cork, and through small interventions and events programming brings life and use back into the place.

“Common-Unity” is a rehabilitation project of the community public space in the San Pablo Xalpa Housing Unit in Azcapotzalco, Mexico City. The unit was divided by walls, fences and barriers that the inhabitants had built over time try to overcome insecurity. This did not allow for a free use of the community public space available and led to more safety issues. The main architect’s objective was to transform a “sectored housing unit” into a “Common-Unity”, designing with the community and not only for it, based on democratic processes. They removed the vertical borders replacing them with horizontal boundaries made of metal structure roofs without permanent walls.

An outdoor market organised around an ancestral tree that has become a public space. The project design references the area’s traditional market architecture of adobe posts and reed roofs, pushing the typology forward using compressed earth bricks and metal for durability. It results in an infrastructure that is visually appealing that the users can be proud of, and that has the potential of consequently attracting more people and activities to the area. The design of the project is kept very simple, using a colourful recycled metal canopy produced through a succession of individual shading structures that compensate for the difficulty in growing trees in such an arid, desert climate.