As a Community Developer, Project Manager and Urbanist, for decades I have enjoyed traveling to, working and consulting with many of the amazing cities of this world, from Seattle to Taipei, Bratislava to Johannesburg and Berlin to Amsterdam.
Since the 1980s I have been exploring, working with and living in alternative housing projects, ranging from Community Land Trusts in the United States to a Kibbutz in Israel to Eco-Villages and Cooperatives in Berlin.
My main focus is on urban, international CoHousing Cultures: self-organized, community-oriented, inclusive and sustainable forms of housing. Another special interest is the exploration and development of convivial technologies. It's about being informative, enjoyable, constructive, communicative, creative and most importantly human.
Since 2000 I have had teaching contracts in Berlin with a range of universities including: FU and TU Berlin, Kunsthochschule Berlin Weißensee Raum Strategien, CIEE Future Cities, BTK (DIY + DIT Architecture Summer School) and UW CHID Berlin. My variety of university, research and teaching projects deal with participatory, civil society-initiated, re-developments of urban land and buildings, informal planning, innovative uses of environmental technologies and democratizations of urban planning processes.
id22:
Founder and Director of id22: Institute for Creative Sustainability. Current work studies and publicizes relationships among self-organized housing, urban development processes and social ecology. Projects include the books CoHousing Cultures and CoHousing Inclusive, the annual housing fair EXPERIMENTDAYS, the online platform CoHousing-Berlin, Creative Sustainability Tours, etc. Personally active for decades with CoHousing.
Partners include Land Berlin, the European Commission and a large number of foundations.
Spreefeld
Personally active for decades with CoHousing, and since 2011 involved in the development of the Spreefeld.
The Spreefeld Building and Housing Cooperative is one of Berlin’s best examples of self-organized CoHousing, providing apartments for about 150 people and working spaces for about 100. The ground level and extensive landscape bordering the Spree offer diverse places and services for the general public, including community gardens and cultural spaces, daycare and wood workshop. The buildings represent an ecological, passive standard, the site is car-free, and the opportunities for participation are many.
Spree WG 1
Since 2014 I have been at home in the Spreefeld’s Spree WG 1 shared-living group.
Our Spree WG is a Sub Project of the Spreefeld, with 23 people living on two floors.
We have 12 private apartments and share a community kitchen and living room.
The Spree WG is not dogmatic, bringing together 15 adults, four teenagers and 4 children.