Keywords: "Projects" (5×)action (1×)Communication (1×)Design (3×)Dokumentation (7×)Expertinnen des Alltags (1×)matters of form (3×)medium (4×)Minimal Structure (1×)notation (3×)planning (2×)problematisation (1×)Rothenburgsort (1×)stadtteilöffentlich (1×)Uncertainty (1×)
Dominique Peck has joined the Research and Teaching Programme Urban Design’s academic staff at HafenCity University in 2015. Being a UD alumni, his work has a focus on project management, design development and transposing formats in research, teaching and practice. Dominique was co-project managing the live project Building a Proposition for Future Activities and is now focused on his PhD Project Re-positioning Project Management in Urban Design.
Bernd Kniess is an architect and urban planner. Since 2008 he is Professor for Urban Design at HafenCity Universität Hamburg where he established the Master Programme Urban Design. He is interested in the negotiation of the contemporary city, whose planning principles he aims to diagrammatically describe and transfer into a relational practice as procedure.
Compared to the settlement construction projects, the encounter house project is very small. This is an advantage when it comes to buying building materials, as the developer simply orders a little more. This is a disadvantage, because the project only receives secondary attention from the project management and so many small mistakes occur in the process organisation, which are then noticeable on the construction site. On this page we present a description of the two nights before the kickoff of the preliminary exercise of the project days.
About column A
The three members of On/Off arrive at my home the Sunday before the Summer School Kickoff on the following Tuesday. One sleeps on my couch, one on one of my co-worker's, the third comes directly to the construction site.
A few weeks ago we met in my apartment to discuss the concept of the workshop leader's performance profile. On/Off are former employees of the Berlin office Raumlabor. In the planning of the Summer School, we, at the Urban Design teaching and research programme acting as process control, spoke about a selection of offices, which could play on the extensive range of services rendered by the workshop management. When we were looking for suitable offices, the team already knew that around 60 people would participate in the Summer School. 40% refugess, 40% international students, 10% neighbours and 10% trade students of the Gewerbeschule Bautechnik G19. The task for the workshop leader was to develop, design, partially test and produce the minimal structure of the project days, which took place on 8 and 9 September 2017.
In the first meeting in my living room one of the three On/Off employees came with his girlfriend. Both were on vacation in Hamburg one day and agreed to take an hour for the meeting. I presented the lead sheet of the project days, explained the motif, the conception, the actors and their role and individual core concepts such as minimal structure, storage of things and the rules of the project days. The On/Off employee could easily follow everything and noted down initial questions and sketches for later consultation with his colleagues about whether they could and would like to work in this way. Finally, I submitted the budget proposal. We were negotiating the payment of the travel costs, as all three employees would come from different projects in different countries and had to travel directly to the Summer School and then return to the projects afterwards. A few days after the first meeting, we were able to formalize On/Off's positive response to our offer in the form of a procurement contract at the university. In addition, On/Off provided a list of materials and tools, which we coordinated with the client and ordered from the building materials trade store.
Back to Sunday: We all go to an Asian restaurant opposite the Hamburger Messehallen for dinner. Afterwards we discuss the course of the coming days and the previous project genesis with some beers. Back at my place, I fold down the couch, fetch the sheets from the cupboard, provide a bottle of water, and say good night to one of the three employees.
The next day we take the subway to HafenCity University. I just bring everyone to the office and introduce Rebecca Wall and Marius Töpfer, our tutors. Rebecca and me make our way to a nearby car rental station, where we pick up a Mercedes transporter and a slightly larger Iveco transporter. We drive back to the university and park in front of the underground car park. From here on our paths separate. Rebecca and Marius drive to the Hamburg material administration and fetch there the props for the storage of things or the project days. I drive with the On/Off Team in the direction of Poppenbütteler Berg. After 40 minutes we arrive on site and are amazed at the size of the 400 m2 party tent in which the project days will take place. We take over the party tent and the office, accommodation, toilets and shower containers. The interior of the kitchen container is late. The tools will be delivered tomorrow. The fuse box will cause problems. When the showers are running, the fuse blows. Probably we will have to take a cold shower. The project manager of f & w fördern und wohnen offers us to go to a hotel, the costs would be covered. We think briefly, but reject due to tomorrow's kickoff of the workshop. We plan to welcome 60 people with breakfast from 9.00 a.m. and have to buy groceries and set up before. So we stay in the container village and search for a restaurant in the neighbourhood. This is not so easy in Poppenbüttel. Since we don't want to go to Schweinske or to a pizzeria, we walk to the only Syrian restaurant in the district. The shop looks like an upscale restaurant on the outskirts of the city. Everything is furnished with high-quality materials from the DIY store. People wear suits, polo shirts, dresses with leather jackets on top. Not the best choice, but the employee greets us very friendly. She has a piercing on her left eyebrow and is not from Syria, but somewhere in Eastern Europe. She notices that we are not from here and asks us the obligatory question “Where are you from?” handing over the menus. Canada, Czech Republic, Austria, three times Germany, we work here on the construction site of the planned refugee accommodation. “Ok, nice to have you”. We all order the cheapest dish with 14€ on the menu Ratatouille with couscous and a bottle of sparkling water. The four full forks taste great. We pay only a little later because we want to get some beer and something to eat from Penny. Equipped with rolls, drinks and Toffifee we sit in the atrium of the container village on the benches of the first Summer School and finish the last things for tomorrow. The On/Off's write starchitect names on the doors of the containers. The containers are each equipped with three beds. They have two windows, a door, a small entrance zone, metal beds with mattresses, cushions and bed covers. Everything here. The light doesn't work. The heating does not work. We don't have electricity for the mobile router. The fuse is out and it always jumps out as soon as we put it back in. Ok, no matter. Tomorrow it starts. Quickly into the Rem Koolhaas container into bed and then up at 6:30.