Bernd Schmutz Architekten

Our proposal for a visitor centre to support Bertolt Brecht and Helene Weigel’s Haus in Buckow has been awarded with an Honourable Mention. The project which has been conceived in collaboration with Adam Khan Architects, accommodates a tall reception, large hall for lectures and events, visitor facilities and offices under a tent-like and gently curved roof which is sitting as a light timber pavilion in the lush gardens of the protected heritage site.

As part of the festival ‘Metamorphoses’ organised by The Architecture Foundation in London, Bernd Schmutz has been invited by Ellis Woodman to a day-long symposium on 7th October to explore classical currents in contemporary culture and architecture. Our presentation ‘Soft Symmetries’  demonstrated the relevance of classicism in our work as an inspiration and source for transformation. Speakers at the Hawksmoor Room of the Old Royal Naval College included also Timothy Smith & Jonathan Taylor, David Kohn, George Saumarez Smith, Chris Dyvik & Max Kahlen, Norreile Breen, Pier Paolo Tamburelli, Andrew Phillips & Melissa Johnston, Amin Taha, David Knight & Cristina Monteiro and Adam Nathaniel Furman.
(Image from ‘The Architecture Foundation’)

Bernd Schmutz has been invited to participate with 30 experts, architects and urban planners at a 1-week long workshop called “Ideenmeisterschaft” to conceive new strategies and architectural concepts for transforming large areas of central Bremen into a more liveable city. The new format for a planning charette, organised and conceived by JES, is based on public consultation and will be stimulated at its outset by external views from various disciplines to support a co-creative process within the interdisciplinary teams in order to gather new ideas for Mitte Bremen and the future of Bremen’s inner city.

Bernd Schmutz has been invited to join Atelier Ekinci at Hochschule Luzern/Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts  as a guest critic for reviews of the studio’s work on steel structures over the course of this semester. Inspired by the work of Bernd and Hilla Becher the students are researching the formal, tectonic and typological potential of nearby haulage structures in Horw and translate them into proposals for large-scale industrial buildings which reflect both pragmatic beauty and careful proportions with characterful structures in an industrial landscape at the transition  between city and nature.

Construction works for the project ‘West Hill’ in Putney/London have started with demolition of the existing buildings to prepare the ground for the following phases. The new building will comprise 8 flats of varying sizes stretching around a central courtyard between the two streets.