MEYER-GROBRUEGGE GERMANY
Meyer-Grohbruegge is an architecture and design office based in Berlin, founded in 2015 and led by Johanna Meyer-Grohbrügge. The studio’s approach is focused on questioning the status quo and developing new forms and typologies for architecture projects. Meyer-Grohbruegge’s design ethos balances intuition with pragmatism, which involves a process of exploring varied spatial forms for cultural and social constructs. The practice seeks to find simple architectural expressions for complex problems through an approach of “reduction”: reduction of form, material, and resources.
Through a variety of projects ranging from art galleries and collections, residential and office buildings, exhibition and furniture design, the studio seeks to create unique relationships between people and their built environment, exploring different ways of living and working together.
The studio prioritizes sustainability and considers size, materials, and openness as equally important as functional aspects. Their recent projects aim to create buildings with an open-frame construction that can accommodate the varying needs of occupants, rather than a singular program.Meyer-Grohbruegge’s housing projects explore the tension between communal and private, openness and intimacy, exploring the possibilities of communal living. Their live-work projects blur the lines between private and public, allowing these spaces to expand beyond their boundaries, resulting in an ongoing reconsideration of current definitions of community. www.meyer-grohbruegge.com
Kurfürstenstrasse
In collaboration with Sam Chermayeff Office
Berlin, Germany
Area: 3,6780 s.m | Status: Completed 2022
This 25-unit residential building consists of six adjoining towers that have undulating facades running parallel to the surrounding streets. The towers are nested into each other, with interconnected floors that overlap both vertically and horizontally. The floorplate layout creates a spatial continuity that is felt within the individual apartments and in relation to neighboring units. There are no interior walls or hallways, except for bathroom enclosures, so the living space throughout each tower is continuous, without clear boundaries between units. Privacy and connection are achieved through changes in level, corners, and sight-lines. This creates potentially limitless ways of moving and connecting throughout the building, making it a radical approach to shared apartments that is similar to co-living but with even more overlap. Most apartments have four neighboring units that share space, with lower-height spaces formed where the units interlink. At the overlap, these spaces can belong to either adjoining unit, creating extra ‘rooms’ for either unit, or remain as ‘in-between’ spaces.
The design of the building provokes a rethinking of conventional notions of private space and community. The building is designed to be open, with each space connected to several others, giving residents the option to choose how, when, and with whom to share their lives. The architecture doesn't impose cohabitation or sharing, but instead offers flexibility for residents to create their private and shared spaces based on their individual needs. The intersecting lower areas can potentially be shared between neighbours, such as for a guest room, home cinema, or kitchen. The aim is to encourage residents to reconsider traditional boundaries between themselves and their neighbours, to explore new ways of merging and meeting, and to develop new communal areas for shared interests.
This project is designed to be open, with each space connected to several others, giving residents the option to choose how, when, and with whom to share their lives.
The towers are nested into each other, with interconnected floors that overlap both vertically and horizontally.
There are no interior walls or hallways, except for bathroom enclosures, so the living space throughout each tower is continuous, without clear boundaries between units
Bernauer Strasse
Berlin, Germany
Area: 700 s.m. | Status: In Progress
This six-story residential building, situated on Bernauer Strasse where the Berlin Wall once stood, embodies the concept that life, particularly in a domestic context, is in a state of constant flux and therefore requires flexible and adaptable living spaces. The building features a spiraling arrangement of floor plates that offers flexible and open living areas that can be customized and adjusted by its occupants, adding an extra dimension to their living quarters.
Each apartment revolves around a central circular core and has both an upper and lower entrance accessible via a private outdoor space. Rather than prioritizing specific rooms or spaces, such as the kitchen or bathroom, each ‘pie slice’ or step in the apartment is the same size and contributes equally to the fluid and open living space.
The rooms are only differentiated by their location and orientation in the space, providing a nuanced form of privacy that replaces conventional interior partitions.
On the ground floor, the building welcomes residents with an open outdoor space that leads directly to the staircase or garden. The roof terrace is a communal area with steps that offer different views of Berlin. The transparent glass façade highlights the clear and distinct spatial structure of the interior, while the brick facade connects the building to its surrounding context.
On the ground floor, the building welcomes residents with an open outdoor space that leads directly to the staircase or garden
The building features a spiraling arrangement of floor plates that offers flexible and open living areas that can be customized and adjusted.
Axonometric of the staggered floorplates rotating around the core.
