bauhaus earth fellowship program
The project-based Bauhaus Earth Fellowship Program (BE-FELLOW) funds selected, exceptionally talented, emerging protagonists in the Bauwende*. The Program objective is to identify new, powerful architectural languages for a sustainable built environment and to support this transformation via architectural quality and design expression. The Program is designed to provide Fellows with the financial freedom and the intellectual and professional environment to pursue their promising experimental ideas and new design approaches in a focused way. Fellowship projects challenge existing building codes and conventions in the construction sector through design and building practice. Through collaborative practice, the fellowship projects bring together emerging actors, experts, students, and local stakeholders. They aim to produce new knowledge on local, biobased, and circular building, bridging the gap between institutional research and building practice to contribute to the development of a powerful aesthetic for a sustainable architecture of the future.
BE-FELLOW is a collaboration between Bauhaus Earth and Experimental, the non-profit organization founded by Prof. Regine Leibinger. Since 1993, together with Frank Barkow, she has run the Berlin architectural studio Barkow Leibinger. She teaches at German and international universities and looks to develop Experimental into a framework for practice-based experimental and research work, which often has too little space under the constraints of everyday work.
Fellows And Projects
BE-FELLOW welcomes a broad spectrum of emerging international practitioners in the fields of architecture, design and engineering, art, as well as to interdisciplinary constellations of architectural production. Fellows have proven a specific relevant individual expertise.
Fellowship projects are framed by clear research questions and typically target the production of architectural artifacts of manageable scale that serve as tangible and measurable demonstrations of new ways of building. They should aim for longevity and to be integrated in a real-world, social context.
Projects are open-ended and designed for a duration of 3 to 12 months. They are developed and implemented in close collaboration between the Fellows and BE-FELLOW team and further project-specific partners in an open and shared research environment. We encourage Fellows to spend as much time as possible in Berlin and in the LAB and office space at Marienpark. The Fellows’ presence in Berlin and Brandenburg is linked to exhibitions, lectures, symposia, and debates.
Funding & Support
Fellows receive financial support for the implementation of the project on the basis of their project specific calculation included in the application form (approx. 4.000€/month, see application form for more details). Matthias Ballestrem and Alexine Sammut –the BE-FELLOW team – support the project through content-related collaboration, as well as organizational support. For Fellows, Bauhaus Earth becomes an interdisciplinary learning environment and platform for communal learning outside the formal educational system. In Berlin, Fellows have free access to the LAB and office space at Marienpark, which includes a workshop with technical support. Drawing on the specific focus of fellow projects, we organize knowledge exchanges with Bauhaus Earth’s ongoing projects and our growing network.
Fellowship project development and results will be published on Bauhaus Earth’s media channels. Fellows’ presence in Berlin will be combined with lectures, debates, and exhibitions. BE-FELLOW supports fruitful and long-term networks and relationships with our fellows.
Open Call
Bauhaus Earth invites applications to the Fellowship Program (BE-FELLOW) with a deadline of April 23, 2023.
1) Completed Application Form (PDF / MS Word)
2) Relevant, authored sample of work (format A3 landscape, max. 15 pages, PDF max. 10 MB)
Applicants are asked to submit the following materials in English by email to ballestrem@bauhauserde.org
Fellowship recipients will be selected by the BE-FELLOW Curatorium based on submitted applications. Successful applicants will be notified by late spring 2023.
BE-FELLOW publishes biannual calls. The following call opens in summer 2023.
Curatorium
The BE-FELLOW Curatorium meets biannually to discuss the content and strategy of current projects, future direction of the program, and selection of Fellows. To ensure impartiality the majority of the Curatorium consists of external, highly distinguished experts.
External members:
Prof. Florian Nagler
(Professor for Architectural Design and Construction, TU München / Florian Nagler Architekten)
Prof. Anna Ramos
(Adjunct professor for Architectural Technology, ETSAB – UPC / Director Fundació Mies van der Rohe)
Prof. Christiane Sauer
(Professor for Material Design, Weißensee Kunsthochschule Berlin)
Karen Stein
(Independent Critic and Architectural Advisor)
Prof. Jan de Vylder
(ETH Z D ARCH CHAIR FOR ARCHITECTURE AND DESIGN / SHARE FOR ARCHITECTURE AN(D) ATTITUDE / A JDVIV / IVJDV A + ETC – architecten Jan De Vylder INGE VINCK)
Prof. Dr. Jan Wurm
(Professor Regenerative Design and Biofabrication in Architecture, KU Leuven / EU Engagement and Venturing Lead Europe, Arup)
Internal members:
Dr. Matthias Ballestrem
(Program Director BE-FELLOW, Bauhaus Earth / Co-Managing Director, Experimental)
Prof. Regine Leibinger
(Barkow Leibinger / Founder, Experimental)
Prof. Dr. Philipp Misselwitz
(Executive Director, Bauhaus Earth)
1st FELLOWS: MATERIAL CULTURES
BE-FELLOW’s inaugural fellowship project is led by London-based Material Cultures. Their project “Constructive Land Berlin/Brandenburg” began in February of 2023. Building on the methodology of their ongoing research project on sustainable forestry and regenerative land management in the UK, “Constructive Land“, Material Cultures and Bauhaus Earth will collaboratively design and build a bio-based demonstrator building, following an analysis of the Brandenburg’s bio-based material supply chains and production cycles. The experimental transfer of the previously developed methods to a new political, climatic, and cultural context—from the North-East and Yorkshire, UK to Berlin and Brandenburg—will bring forth both the universal and specific properties of the methodology and its suitability for use in different contexts.
By translating their research into a tangible, innovative, and publicly accessible building, the project will contribute to the development of a new architectural vernacular: one with aesthetics rooted in circular and bio-based principles. “Constructive Land Berlin/Brandenburg” will demonstrate the potency of cross-industry and interdisciplinary collaborations, and the critical urgency of addressing the conditions and health of our landscapes. The Project will be one of Bauhaus Earth’s first steps towards the growing database of exemplary demonstrator projects showing alternative ways forward for the built environment.
Contact
BE-FELLOW is chaired by Dr. Matthias Ballestrem, architect and recently Professor of Architecture and Experimental Design at HCU in Hamburg. He understands BE-FELLOW as a unique opportunity to strengthen the role of architectural design and construction for the transformation of the built environment through practice—bridging the gap between institutional research and building practice. For further inquiries, please contact Matthias at ballestrem@bauhauserde.org
*Bauwende: German term referring to the massive paradigm shift necessary in how we build.