Bauhaus Earth Fellowship Program
The project-based Bauhaus Earth Fellowship Program (BE-FELLOW) funds selected, exceptionally talented, emerging protagonists of the Bauwende*. The program aims to identify new, powerful architectural languages for a sustainable built environment and to support this transformation through 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.
Through collaborative practice, the fellowship projects bring together emerging actors, experts, students, and local stakeholders. They aim to produce new knowledge on local, bio-based, and circular building, to bridge the gap between institutional research and building practice, and 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 seeks to develop Experimental into a framework for practice-based experimental and research work, which often has too little space within the constraints of everyday work.
Fellows & Projects
BE-FELLOW welcomes a broad spectrum of emerging international practitioners in the fields of architecture, design and engineering, art, and interdisciplinary constellations of architectural production. Fellows have demonstrated specific relevant individual expertise.
Projects supported by the Fellowship Program should showcase clear research questions and typically target the production of architectural artefacts of manageable scale that serve as tangible and measurable demonstrations of new ways of building. They should aim for longevity and to be integrated into 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 the BE-FELLOW team and further project-specific partners in an open and collaborative 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 will be linked to exhibitions, lectures, symposia, and debates.
Funding & Support
Fellows receive financial support for the implementation of the project based on their project-specific calculations included in the application form. Matthias Ballestrem and Alexine Sammut–the BE-FELLOW team–support the project through content collaboration and organizational support. For the Fellows, Bauhaus Earth becomes an interdisciplinary learning environment and platform for communal learning outside the formal education system. In Berlin, Fellows have free access to the LAB and office space at Marienpark, which includes a workshop with technical support. Based on the specific focus of the Fellows’ projects, we organize knowledge exchange with ongoing Bauhaus Earth projects and our growing network.
Fellowship project development and results will be published on Bauhaus Earth’s media channels. BE-FELLOW supports fruitful and long-term networks and relationships with our Fellows.
Open Call 2/23
Our current 2nd Open Call is open until 17 September 2023. Applicants are asked to submit the following materials in English by email to ballestrem@bauhauserde.org.
1. Completed application form (PDF-file/MS Word file)
2. Relevant, authored work sample (format A3 landscape, max. 15 pages, PDF max. 10 MB)
Fellowship recipients will be selected by the BE-FELLOW Curatorium based on submitted applications.
Successful applicants will be notified by the end of October 2023. Projects should start in early 2024.
Together with the announcement of the next fellows, the modalities for the following calls will be published on this website, on Instagram, and on our LinkedIn page.
Current Fellows
Our second fellowship has been awarded to Baukreisel e.V. for the innovative deconstruction case study “concrete.matters – primary structure laboratory.” Baukreisel will work with Bauhaus Earth on the case of the deconstruction and re-use of structural concrete building elements from the former Max Planck Institute high-rise building in Dortmund. Please find more information here.
The first fellowship has been awarded to Material Cultures for “Constructive Land Berlin/Brandenburg” on rewetting peatlands in Brandenburg for the production of regional bio-based building materials. For more information, please visit our page on the first BE-FELLOW project.
Curatorium
The BE-FELLOW Curatorium meets twice a year to discuss the content and strategy of current projects, the future direction of the program, and the selection of Fellows. To ensure impartiality, the majority of the Curatorium consists of external, highly distinguished experts.
External members:
Prof. Florian Nagler
(Professor of Architectural Design and Construction, TU München / Florian Nagler Architekten)
Prof. Anna Ramos
(Adjunct professor of Architectural Technology, ETSAB – UPC / Director Fundació Mies van der Rohe)
Prof. Christiane Sauer
(Professor of 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 of 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)
Contact
BE-FELLOW is chaired by Dr. Matthias Ballestrem, architect and until 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 in transforming the built environment through practice – bridging the gap between institutional research and building practice. For further enquiries, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with Matthias at ballestrem@bauhauserde.org
*Bauwende: German term referring to the massive paradigm shift necessary in the way we build.