Foreword

The Berlin Affordable Housing Challenge is part of Bee Breeders’ Affordable Housing competition series. Run in partnership with ARCHHIVE BOOKS, this competition tasked participants with submitting innovative design proposals for tackling Berlin’s housing crisis.

Germany’s new government, formed in 2021, has vowed to make affordable housing a centerpiece of its agenda. Berlin, the capital city and the country’s center of gravity for entrepreneurship and new business, is in particular feeling extreme housing market pressures. According to an article published by NPR during the period of this competition, eight out of 10 city residents are now renters, where rent has increased 42% since 2016, and where an average of 40,000 new residents arrive each year.

Bee Breeders’ Affordable Housing design series posits that there is no one right answer to making housing affordable. Today, a host of new ideas and platforms are enabling people to own or purchase homes. These creative methods include everything from community co-living facilities, to 3D-printed homes, stackable modular homes and new forms of transit-oriented development.

There were no specific design or site requirements for this competition. Proposals were requested to be flexible, enabling accommodations for a variety of inhabitant types: single professionals, couples, families, or group living. The brief sought designs for a pilot-phase concept for affordable housing, which could be carried out within Berlin to increase its housing stock.

Bee Breeders collaborated with a regional and international interdisciplinary jury panel. The full panel included: Enlai Hooi, the Head of Innovation at Schmidt Hammer Lassen Architects in Copenhagen, Denmark; Samuel Gonçalves, founder of SUMMARY, an architectural practice based in Porto, Portugal; Maya Mahgoub-Desai the Chair of Environmental Design at OCAD University and a practicing Urban Designer and Planner with Moriyama Teshima Architects; Alexander Sacharow of Berlin-based Penthaus à la Parasit, a political advisor, activist and artist whose fields of expertise are housing, economics and foreign policy; Andreas Tjeldflaat, Norway-based founder of Framlab and a member of the Real Estate Market advisory group for UNECE; and Jakob Wirth of Berlin-based Penthaus à la Parasit, an artist, activist and sociologist whose work focuses on public space.

Selected winning designs will be featured in ARCHHIVE BOOKS’ next issue of its publication series What is Affordable Housing? Bee Breeders and its jury panel thank all individuals and teams that submitted proposals.

COMPETITION ORGANISERS
Berlin Affordable 
Housing Challenge
Official partner
Berlin Affordable 
Housing Challenge
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Housing Challenge

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Affordable Housing Series #16 ideas COMPETITION

1st Prize Winner

Project name

Roofs of Berlin

Authors Moritz Maier, Ruonan Wang
Country Germany

2nd Prize Winner

Project name

EXTRA - In the light of shadows

Competitions usually have fewer design restrictions than other types of architectural work. It gives you the liberty to look at things from a different angle and you have the chance to come up with unconventional solutions. We belief this practice is important to generate innovation and we enjoy being part of it.

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Authors Ana Richter de Arce, Jakob Fischer
Country Germany

3rd Prize Winner

Project name

Shaking hands

Company Syntaxis
Authors Alexander Starikov, Evgeniy Chebyshev, Evgeniy Goman, Anna Isaeva
Country Russian Federation

BB GREEN AWARD +
ARCHHIVE STUDENT AWARD

Project name

EPAL Haus Berlin

I think competition is a stage for the young architect. As an architecture student, I want to prove myself and measure my designing level through worldwide competition.

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Authors Hyosik Kim
Country South Korea
+122 points Buildner University Rankings

Honorable Mentions

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Project name

Wall Living Stations

Authors Monika Rudnicka
Country Germany
Project name

3S HOUSING

Authors Yun-jeong Na, Park Kahyun, Seo Eunji
Country South Korea
Project name

Dwelling: Intertwined

Authors Kaylee Lamb, Alexander Johnsson, Palina Siarheyeva, Kristina Striewe
Country Sweden
+72 points Buildner University Rankings
Project name

Urban Shelf

Authors Asli Aydin , Yining Cong, Karla Citlalli Contreras Marin, Liujun Chen
Country Turkey
Project name

W-Bahn living

Authors Michail Davydov
Country Russian Federation
Project name

FROM COMMERCIAL TO COMMON

Authors Maura Schmitt, Mascha Creutz, Jenny Neubig
Country Germany

Shortlisted projects

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daniel connors

Australia

paulo sembrano

Australia

W-Bahn living

michail davydov

Dialectica (spectrum group)

Russian Federation

rifat mahzabin

md nazmul hossain

Bangladesh

Urban Shelf

asli aydin

yining cong

karla citlalli contreras marin

liujun chen

Turkey

mohammadreza abbaspourmeskin

Germany

ossi kunnas

Technische universität berlin, tu berlin

+22 points Buildner University Rankings!
Finland

nouhaila zergane

maia villanueva

Polytechnic university of madrid (universidad politécnica de madrid)

+22 points Buildner University Rankings!
Spain

FROM COMMERCIAL TO COMMON

maura schmitt

mascha creutz

jenny neubig

Germany

hanyu zheng

China

tianyi han

prajakta thipsay

jenny morrill

madison irwin

Draw architecture + urban design

United States

vanessa jansen

Technische universität darmstadt, tu darmstadt

+22 points Buildner University Rankings!
Germany

christina hristova

macourley james

dan gibbons

United Kingdom

EXTRA - In the light of shadows

ana richter de arce

jakob fischer

Germany

ioanna peponi

United Kingdom

Re-Activating the Plattenbau

sophie ho

mhairi dickie

runqian lu

United Kingdom

geon yeong kim

poyen huang

ching en lin

United Kingdom

Shaking hands

alexander starikov

evgeniy chebyshev

evgeniy goman

anna isaeva

Syntaxis

Russian Federation

mutaz alabtah

mariia khalimon

batool alkheder

Sweden

Roofs of Berlin

moritz maier

ruonan wang

Germany

Berlin Affordable Housing Challenge

antonella marzi

viviane viniarski

jose gerardo ponte

Gate architects

Italy

Project ID 62498

max strömberg bååth

alva stenlund

alexis chastain

leonard florian anton

Sweden

Project ID 62497

raphael börlin

sara mohtadi

oscar kylmä

Sweden

Dwelling: Intertwined

kaylee lamb

alexander johnsson

palina siarheyeva

kristina striewe

Sweden

Project ID 62495

carlota de haan

amanda lagerkvist

johanna schweitz fåhraeus

amir ebrahimian

Sweden

Project ID 59975

ivan kozyrenko

arina kim

anastasia manjak

Russian Federation

joseph loreto

ramsey leung

Canada

rubén ortega gonzález

alejandro rausell olivares

bernardo esquembre hernández

cristina sequero barrera

Spain

Wall Living Stations

monika rudnicka

Germany

alex cook

United Kingdom

the quang ngo

hoang minh tran

ngoc anh chu thi

viet anh pham

Hanoi architectural university

+22 points Buildner University Rankings!
Vietnam

douglas furia

Lawrence technological university

+22 points Buildner University Rankings!
United States

Stacked family homes

david windt

Derksen windt architecten

Netherlands

3S HOUSING

yun-jeong na

park kahyun

seo eunji

South Korea

EPAL Haus Berlin

hyosik kim

South Korea

ali andaji garmaroodi

Iran

erfan shakibaei

ali shakibaei

mohammadhossein salmani

avaa ranjbar

Iran

Berlin A Living Continuum

zifeng ye

zixuan xiong

United Kingdom

mehrave mokhtarian

hanie norouzi

Iran

peter willett

yuelei (lorraine) li

cindy lin

Australia
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