R:29 | Winter Semester 2023/24

At the end of the winter semester 2023/24, the Faculty of Architecture - Urban Planning - Landscape Planning at the University of Kassel once again presented the semester exhibition "Rundgang" from February 6 to 8, 2024. Students and lecturers gave insights into their semester projects on the ASL campus and in the city. As is usual in later practice, they showed analyses and processes, presented ideas, designs and concepts and discussed their results with fellow students, subject representatives and the public.

The R:29 exhibition focused on the theme of Re:use. Numerous projects addressed current social, political and economic issues with regard to climate change, sustainable design and use of space as well as the reuse of building materials.

The semester exhibition was organized by academic and student employees from the Departments of Designing in Urban Contexts (Prof. Dr.-Ing. Verena Brehm) and Design and Sustainable Construction (Prof. Frank Kasprusch).

Detailed information on the programme and the projects can be found in the exhibition magazine on the R:ein website.

Serial Housing Production - The Specific Example of the Former Site of Alliance Healthcare

In an architectural project, students have been working on serial housing production using the example of the former site of Alliance Healthcare in Kassel's Schillerviertel (guest professor Anna Weber, guest professor Peter Tschada, Department of Future Housing Lab). The task was to rethink the old prefabricated concrete warehouse and to densify it using serial construction methods. Overall, a sustainable and climate-friendly neighborhood was to be planned, growing out of the existing building. The focus was on the creation of new living space that achieves a high degree of flexibility of use in sustainable housing and space models. Space for community-oriented facilities, including a place for the homeless, was also to be addressed. Additions of storeys and redensifications were to be designed in new approaches to serial building concepts. Serial housing designs were also the subject of a short symposium as part of the semester exhibition Rundgang.

Social Economy Berlin

In the architecture project "Sozialwirtschaft Berlin" (Prof. Frank Kasprusch, Malee Hildebrand, Department of Design and Sustainable Construction), the students' task was to design a social center in a gab between buildings in Berlin-Moabit. For this purpose, components from a former factory building (steel construction) that have lost their previous use were to be used in the sense of re-use.

With the Sozialwirtschaft Berlin, a self-managed center for (re)integration into working life and a social meeting place for the neighborhood is to be created. The long-term unemployed, people with disabilities and trainees with learning difficulties will find new work in the catering, social or gardening sectors. Food is the unifying element that brings together all social and cultural classes and creates a space for diverse encounters.

Change yourself!

In the introductory Urban and Regional Planning studio "Wechsel Dich!" (Prof. Stefan Rettich, M. Sc. Marius Freund, Department of Urban Design), students transformed the vacant warehouse of the Hackländer company and the surrounding area in the Northern part of the City of Kassel district into a lively, sustainable urban building block. They redesigned the existing building in the most sustainable way possible by creating new offerings and high-quality spaces that are open to the entire district.

Boxes, Pallets and Containers: Fresh Ideas for the Logistics of Tomorrow

In the Urban and Regional Planning project "Kisten, Palletten und Container: frische Ideen für die Logistik von Morgen" (M. Sc. Jan Werneke, Department of Urban and Regional Planning), students analyzed the importance of logistics companies and areas for urban and regional development based on the challenges facing the industry. In dialogue with experts and local authorities, they used the Frankfurt/Rhine-Main region as an example to develop transferable concepts for the contemporary development of districts characterized by logistics.

The field of experimentation for the introductory landscape architecture studio "StadtFreiRaum | Karlsplatz Kassel" (Prof. Ariane Röntz, Prof. Florian Otto, Departments of Landscape Architecture and Design and Landscape Architecture | Technology) was the Karlsplatz in Kassel. The students experimented, analyzed, researched, sketched, built models, worked abstractly and concretely and thus jointly gathered initial findings that are significant for the (landscape architectural) design. The aim of the studio was to build up an initial repertoire of design tools and methods in an unconventional way in several subtasks, which served as the basis for a small spatial design. The focus was on space and form, location and context, concept and structure.