Inner cities are transforming. Retail is declining, housing is in crisis, and many established interiors have become obsolete. What used to be department stores, banks, or offices are now shrinking, disappearing, or shifting in meaning. The city of Rosenheim, once one of Germany’s most successful examples of small-scale retail, is caught in a downward spiral fueled by post-pandemic behavioral patterns and the rapid growth of online markets. Fewer people come to shop, resulting in the closing of stores, which in turn attracts fewer visitors. The act of shopping in real life, meanwhile, has transformed into a curated spectacle: an esoteric event, more museum than market.
This studio will explore how to reprogram and hybridize existing interiors of Rosenheim in order to reactivate the area in general. By combining functions that don’t always go together, sweet and salty, so to speak, we will create new spatial constellations and identify surprising partners. Imagine a laundromat that is also a spa, a hairdresser and an ice cream shop, a library that doubles as a day-care, a living space, or a co-working space, or a communal garden above a gym with a view. In experimental interiors, programs are mashed up, mixed, and overlaid. We will analyze interior typologies, diagram their identities, and experimentally “splice” them into new forms that respond to socio-cultural shifts. The methodology will move from analytical research and schematic design charrettes toward detailed, materialized proposals that reimagine traditional architectural thinking and representation via new technologies.
Rather than attempting to fix the city at large, the studio aims to operate on a small, precise, and cheerful scale. Regulations and zoning laws have yet to catch up, but through our inventive, hybrid designs we can show how bringing new activities into the city interiors - sport, recreation, culture, community - can induce long-term transformation on the exterior as well as the interior. Together, we will design resilient, experimental, and playful urban interiors for a more sustainable and fun future.
- Trainer/in: Albrecht, Benjamin