Open Lecture with Benjamin Meurer
On Monday, April 4, between 17:00 and 18:30, the first Open Lecture of the Summer Semester 2022 will take place. Benjamin Meurer, co-founder of Studio Genua will be sharing insights on their recent project “Pool Potentials”, as well as on other architectural explorations he undertook for being able to realize their own ideas. The title of the presentation is "Explorations". Following the presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions and discuss.
The Open Lecture will take place in a hybrid format, on campus at Salzufer 6, 10587 Berlin, and via Zoom. Below are the details for joining via ZOOM.
Click here to join Zoom Meeting.
Students across all disciplines are invited to participate in an interdisciplinary exchange. Be inspired and get to know new perspectives!
About the project:
“Pool Potentials”
By Marina Sylla, Manuel Heck and Benjamin Meurer Summer pools are unique places in the city. Here, the most diverse lifeworlds and realities meet almost nakedly: with each other, side by side, confrontation and exchange. Summer pools allow the social and cultural diversity of the city to take place. They establish connections between the outside strongly segregated and segmented bubbles of the urban everyday life and its inhabitants: inside.
Why can a summer pool have this role only in summer? Why do these places of gathering fall into oblivion for most of the year?
Marina Sylla, Manuel Heck and Benjamin Meurer (Studio Genua) addressed these questions in Pool Potentials and developed the idea of a change of use for Berlin's summer pools. Together with various local actors from politics, neighborhoods, Berlin's pool operators, and pool visitors, they investigated the suitability of the summer pools as a year-round urban resource: How can summertime get-togethers be made possible across all seasons? Which groups in our urban society need these places in the fall, winter, and spring months? What role can these spaces of possibility play with regard to the general lack of space in Berlin?
To anchor the idea in the city, Studio Genua and Felix Pauschinger have created a documentary film about those perspectives and projections.
About Benjamin Meurer
Benjamin Meurer studied Architecture at the Technical University of Berlin (M.Sc.), the Waseda University Tokyo, and the Yokohama Graduate School of Architecture. In 2015 he co-founded the architecture and design collective Studio Genua, based in Berlin. His projects to date range from residential to industrial architecture, from small scale furniture to spatial installations and exhibitions. His work focuses on strong spatial concepts and narratives, as well as the adequate and coherent use of material and construction. His recent project “Pool Potentials,” a study into potential intermediary uses of Berlin’s open-air pools, received funding from the City of Berlin’s “Projektfonds Urbane Praxis”(2021). Moreover, Benjamin Meurer is teaching at the Faculty of Architecture and Design at Berlin International University of Applied Sciences.
About Studio Genua
Studio Genua is a collective of eight young architects and designers based in Berlin. Since 2015 they have initiated and implemented a wide range of projects in the fields of architecture and urban planning . Their work ranges from furniture design, design-build workshops and city walks, stage sets and exhibitions, to residential and industrial architecture. Besides commissioned work, they are enthusiastic about realizing their own ideas, forming an audience and collaborating with other people.