Summer school competition | Building Cycle Rollberg

The shell structure of the storage facility for filled beverage containers has been completed and awaits further development.

Right in the middle of Berlin-Neukölln, the storage facility "VOLLGUT" is built on the land of the former Kindl brewery. In a district that features a wealth of languages and cultures, generations and stakeholders, an old industrial wasteland is supposed to be converted. An environment that not only fosters art and culture, participation and working together, but also accommodates events and gastronomy is being created. Various organisations and clubs are already active in this area as many things are being created.

TU Berlin architecture students have developed a prototype for circular construction as part of their "Building Cycle" seminar at the Natural Building Lab. During the 2017/18 winter semester, a group led by Professor Eike Roswag-Klinge dealt with the issues of sustainability and recycling. Their goal: a reversible and temporary information booth with flexible uses that is meant to be a meeting place and contact point for all stakeholders.

The building is supposed to offer space for information and interaction, and that hosts construction and group meetings or workshops. This allows stakeholders to connect with each other and with their neighbours, and it gives them the opportunity to communicate on processes that are currently under way.

Thirty-six students have developed ways of reusing materials in the construction cycle: A girder grid made from reused wooden beams forms the roof, whose overhang protects the wall modules, which were made from fruit boxes and feature posters, from the elements. In order to be used year-round, the information booth has been insulated by filling the boxes with shredded paper. The team also developed windows with panes made from waste glass: they built the wooden frames themselves and used the inner tubes of bicycles for insulation.

Since the end of the planning phase in mid-February, the "Building Cycle" team has been working on the plot of land of the storage facility "VOLLGUT". The first part has now been completed – the shell of the construction office has been built and is now awaiting its expansion. The roofing ceremony will be held on 8 June.

Summer school competition of the Sto Foundation

Architecture faculties and departments from universities across Europe entered the 2018 summer school competition. From the 52 applications seeking support for internationally oriented courses on sustainability and energetically-efficient types of construction, the four-member jury, led by Sto Foundation Chairman Peter Cheret, selected six winning projects. The jury also included Andres Lepik, director of the Architecture Museum and professor for architectural history and curatorial practice at the TU Munich, Katja Stotmeister as a guest judge and Uwe Koos, the chairman of the Foundation's Board. The Sto Foundation is making available a total sum of about €100,000 for the six selected do-it-yourself student projects.