Skip to content
Technical University of Munich

Emergency Measures IV

Studio as a Framework

Team: Prof. Benedikt Boucsein, Matti Drechsel, Matthias Faul

Emergency Measures – Past, Present, Future

BA-Thesis
BA-Studio 9ECTS + BA-Vertiefung 3ECTS
MA-Studio 

The climate/biosphere emergency is here. Architecture and planning are strongly complicit in the development that led to this situation, feeding the according narratives, or ignoring what is happening. But alternative ideas gain traction. They draw strength from a long tradition of resistance and criticism in our discipline. These movements are very diverse, just as the answers to the current crises are everywhere and nowhere. Because everything about the way we live will and has to change, while it must largely do so within what is already there. We must reinvent the new world inside of the old structures, while we are confronted with an extreme simultaneity of adverse conditions. Past, Present, and Future melt. This is the theme of our studio.

We address this situation by offering a framework for ideas and initiatives that deal with urban design problems but can and should touch other disciplines, scales and approaches. We will create a studio environment where a variety of cases are discussed in depth, with different perspectives and aspects on the emergent conditions we are faced with.

The studio is a format for transforming reality. In the current situation, it can no longer be a purely academic format. Rather, positioned at the centre of the professorship's activities, it should be the starting point for start-ups, publications, practises, careers inside and outside of architecture.

The call for briefs is now open and will close on 21.09.2025.


Zoom Meetings zur Abstimmung am: 09+18.09.25 - 18:30Uhr
https://tum-conf.zoom-x.de/j/4371808769

 

How the studio works:

  • Common goal: Each group works on its own brief, but we share knowledge, material, space, experiences with each other. We are not competitors, but accomplices.

  • Studio environment: The studio is the main working environment. The studio is your learning community. You are expected to involve yourself actively.

  • EM knowledge pool: Central takeaways from former Emergency Measures Group, Urban Analysis methods and other methodological knowledge will be shared in the studio. You will only learn about the discipline of urban design if you understand all approaches that are part of your studio, their methods, their analyses. After the studio, the Emergency Measures knowledge pool will be expanded, and you are free to take it with you and develop it further.

  • Occasional mixes: While you will be mainly working on your own brief, you will also be asked to mix with the other groups for short interactions and experiments. The professorship will introduce short exercises for this. Also, groups are encouraged to ask each other for help concerning interventions, group experiments, and installations.

  • UD-Con and UD-Performa: During the semester, we will practice the discussion of your project in different, interactive formats. This includes classic “critique” sessions but other formats, too.

The studio takes place every thuesday in room 4120 from 11am to 5pm.

The kick-off takes place wednessday 15th  of October at 11 am.

 

How we handle theme requests:

Both students and organizations can hand in a brief. Briefs can be written in German and English.

If you are a student (group):

1. Apply to info.ud(at)ed.tum.de (please CC matthias.faul(at)tum.de) Please use the attached Formular! You can also attach more material you seem fit for presenting your idea.

  • Application is possible both for MA (Architecture and Urbanistik) and BA (Architecture) students. The studio is rewarded with 9 ECTS (BA) (Module AR20133) respectively 15 ECTS (MA) (Module AR30245). Additional ECTS Points for BA Students must be made plausible in the brief, for example with an additional submission.
  • The minimum group size is 2 persons. You cannot work (or send in a draft) alone. Depending on the complexity of the topic, you can apply in groups of up to 5 persons. Please state in the proposal if you are open to more participants and if yes, how many and from which level. In that case, the brief will be declared as “open” on the website.
  • The deadline is April 2nd, 2025

2. We’ll reply within one week at most. If the brief is considered, we will ask you for a personal interview, live or virtual.

3. All accepted briefs will be notified until April 6th, 2025. If your idea is accepted, we guarantee you a place in the project and you do not need to take part in the project market.

If you are a municipality, NGO, or other institution:

  • please contact us early so we can discuss your idea with you, but by the end of March at the latest.
  • If the idea seems fitting, we will ask you for a pdf (3 A4 pages) that contains all important information on what the task should encompass until end of March. We will then formulate the final brief based on that information.
  • The brief will be shared on the website by the beginning of April 2025 latest, advertised via social media, so interested students can inform themselves.
  • If two or more students choose the brief, it will be part of the course. Otherwise, we can share it again in the next semester.
  • We expect a commitment from you to support the group with data, knowledge and constructive criticism.

 

How your theme should be constructed

One aspect of each collumn is necessary to formulate a project theme. Please use the theme request sheet to hand in your proposal! You can also attach more material you seem fit for presenting your idea.

Topic of the project
We are dealing with this…		planetary boundary (acc. to Stockholm resilience Center)
With our project we want to tackle…		type of project
We want to do this with a…

○ site:

p.e. ideas to prevent the destruction of a certain building, biological feature, or social context; or ideas to build/grow such a feature

○ Climate change

Increased greenhouse gases and aerosols in Earth‘s atmosphere trap heat that would otherwise escape into space. The climate change planetary boundary assesses the change in the ratio of incoming and outgoing energy of the Earth. More carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and more trapped radiation causes global temperatures to rise and alters climate patterns.

○ plan

An urban design proposal on a certain site. As a matter of principle, we avoid land take and the creation of impervious surfaces as well as demolition.

○ type:

e.g. cooperative dwellings, suburban office estates, single family houses

○ Freshwater change

The alteration of freshwater cycles, including rivers and soil moisture, impacts natural functions such as carbon sequestration and biodiversity, and can lead to shifts in precipitation levels.

○ strategy

develop a framework or strategy outlining principles and guidelines for the desired change in a given spatial setting

○ Initiative:

that works towards new, non-polluting and non-exploitative living patterns, and that is anchored in space (cooperative, NGO, …)

○ Land system change

The transformation of natural landscapes, such as through deforestation and urbanization, disrupts habitats and biodiversity and diminishes ecological
functions like carbon sequestration and moisture recycling.

○ intervention

create an intervention in urban space through iteration and reflection that addresses an urbanistic issue. Only BA Thesis, only Summer semester (“Interventionsklasse”).

 

○ Biosphere integrity

The diversity, extent, and health of living organisms and ecosystems affects the state of the planet by co-regulating the energy balance and chemical cycles on Earth. Disrupting biodiversity threatens this co-regulation and dynamic stability.

○ start-up

develop an urbanistic business idea, or an idea for a new institution.

The professorship will also provide own briefs.

For exemplary project outcomes, see our website here.

 

In the moment we plan with this schedule for the Studio:
Wednessday 15.10.2025 kick-off Event 
Thuesday 21.10.2025 Training AI, consultations
Wednessday 22.10.2025 Training spatial perception
Thursday 23.10.2025 Training spatial perception
Friday 24.10.2025Training spatial perception
Thuesday 28.10.2025Pin-Up I
Wednessday 29.10.2025Pin-Up I (reserve)
Thuesday, 04.11.2025Training artistic methods, consultatons
Thuesday 11.11.2025Training scientific Methods, consultations
Thuesday 18.11.2025Training Interventions, consultations
Thuesday 25.11.2025Training Softskills, consultations
Thuesday 02.12.2025Consultations via Zoom
Thuesday 09.12.2025Pin-Up II
Wednessday 10.12.2025Pin-Up II (reserve)
Thuesday 16.12.2025Acteurs/ Actants Workshop
Wednessday 17.12.2025Adjustment Spatial Perception
Wednessday 07.01.2026Consultations via Zoom
Thuesday 13.01.2026Theory Speed Dating, Consultations
Thuesday 20.01.2026UD-Con
Wednessday 21.01.2026UD-Con (Reserve)
Thursday 22.01.2026UD-Con Visitor-Day
Thuesday 27.01.2026Consultations
Thuesday 03.02.2026UD-Performa

 

Questions in advance by e-mail to info.ud(at)ed.tum.de or to the assistants directly - or in person - are welcomed.

 

P.S. We plan to run the Emergency Measures format for five years, up to 2028. But, if the emergency ends earlier or even dissolves itself, we will do a series on aesthetic and beauty in urban design instead.

To top