FastForward
by Architecture MattersIssue 01 Cash and the City
With contributions by Buromoscow, Reinier de Graaf, Elizabeth Diller, Sergei Gordeev, Jan Grarup, Franz-Josef Höing, Ulrich Höller, Tobias Sauerbier, Matthias Standfest, Christiane Thalgott, Erion Veliaj, Torben Bayer.
This first issue is devoted to the complex interplay between cities and money. Until a few months ago, skyrocketing land and property prices around the world and their impact on society were omnipresent in the public debate. As of this printing, much is overshadowed by the Covid-19 pandemic. But it has not made any of these issues less relevant. Indeed, our living and working environments are changing even faster, as is the transformation of our inner cities. The global population is growing, and urban flight is not an option for the broad masses. We need concepts for dense, liveable, mixed cities that consume fewer resources in the future than they do today. City and money. Who are we building for? And why? What does quality mean for a building; what does liveability mean for a city? Can it be calculated? How is urban planning possible when money is scarce? How can all sides contribute to the common good?
Contributors
Reinier de Graaf
Reinier de Graaf is a partner at OMA, and since 2002 has been director of its think tank, AMO. He is responsible for urban planning in Europe, the Middle East, and Russia, and for projects such as Timmerhuis in Rotterdam, which unites the city administration, offices and apartments; Holland Green in London, where luxury apartments are financing a design museum; and the De Rotterdam high-rise complex.
Ulrich Höller
Ulrich Höller has been Managing Partner of ABG Real Estate Group since 2020. As one of Germany’s best-known real estate executives, he has been in leading positions in the industry for over 28 years, most recently as Management Board Chairman at GEG German Estate Group AG. Höller is a member of several supervisory and advisory boards, including for the German real estate association ZIA.
Elizabeth Diller
Elizabeth Diller is co-founding partner of Diller Scofidio + Renfro. Her cross-genre work was distinguished with a MacArthur Foundation fellowship in 1999, amongst others; in 2018 she was named among Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential People. She has led the realization of significant cultural works in New York, such as The Shed and the expansion of MoMA. She is a professor at Princeton University’s School of Architecture.
Olga Aleksakova
Olga Aleksakova and Julia Burdova founded Buromoscow in 2004. As the first architects in the post-Soviet period to focus on prefabricated mass housing, they have received numerous awards for their projects adding beauty to the usual monotony. Their clients include the major project developers in Moscow. Burdova is a graduate of the Moscow Architectural Institute; after graduating from Delft University of Technology, Aleksakova worked for OMA. Since 2018 they have taught at Columbia GSAPP in New York.
Julia Burdova
Olga Aleksakova and Julia Burdova founded Buromoscow in 2004. As the first architects in the post-Soviet period to focus on prefabricated mass housing, they have received numerous awards for their projects adding beauty to the usual monotony. Their clients include the major project developers in Moscow. Burdova is a graduate of the Moscow Architectural Institute; after graduating from Delft University of Technology, Aleksakova worked for OMA. Since 2018 they have taught at Columbia GSAPP in New York.
Sergei Gordeev
Sergei Gordeev is CEO of the PIK Group, the largest housing construction company in Russia. Prior to joining PIK, he founded Rosbuilding, a project developer focused on the transformation of former industrial sites. In 2011 he received the RIBA Award for the conversion of the Stanislavsky Factory in Moscow. Gordeev’s interest in Russian Constructivism led him to acquire the Melnikov House, which he donated to the Shchusev Museum of Architecture.
Erion Veliaj
Erion Veliaj has been mayor of Tirana since 2015, and Minister of Youth and Social Welfare before that. In his early 20s in 2003 he founded MJAFT! – Albanian for “Enough!”. The movement encouraged civic engagement in the country following years of political isolation and economic crisis. An advocate for transparency and dialogue, Veliaj is spearheading Tirana030, an urban development plan that aims to curb uncontrolled expansion of the city and includes a greenbelt of two million trees around the city.
Franz-Josef Höing
Franz-Josef Höing has been Chief Building Director Hamburg’s Urban Development and Housing Authority since 2017. Before that, he was personal advisor to the city’s Chief Building Director and led the HafenCity project group. He then served as Senate Building Director in Bremen and as Head of Urban Development, Planning, Construction and Transport in Cologne. Now his challenge is to shape Hamburg’s further growth, through housing programmes and large-scale projects like the Elbtower.
Christiane Thalgott
Prof. Dr.-Ing. E.h. Christiane Thalgott was Munich’s Planning Commissioner from 1992 to 2007. During this time she oversaw major decisions on projects such as the new central train station, the Mittlere Ring highway extension, and the new Jewish Cultural Centre. Even after her retirement, she remains engaged in urban issues such as land law. She has been a member of the Academy of the Arts in Berlin since 2013.
Tobias Sauerbier
Tobias Sauerbier has been Managing Director of SIGNA Real Estate Management Germany GmbH since 2019 and is a member of the managing board of SIGNA Prime Selection AG. Together with Timo Herzberg, he is responsible for all of SIGNA’s real estate activities in Germany. The SIGNA Group is a privately managed industrial holding company active in the real estate and retail sectors with assets of more than 12 million euros.
Matthias Standfest
Dr. sc. Matthias Standfest is founder and CEO of Archilyse AG, one of the top 25 proptech startups in Europe. A research-driven spin-off of ETH Zurich, Archylise offers project developers, architects and property owners a software-as-a-service solution to assess the quality of buildings – it is a kind of “DNA test for architecture”. Matthias Standfest has a broad academic background in architecture, mechanical engineering and philosophy.
Jan Grarup
Jan Grarup is a war photographer. Since the 1990s he has travelled to crisis regions to cover the Gulf War, the Rwandan genocide, the siege of Sarajevo, Chechnya, Dafur, Somalia, Iraq, Syria, and more. Going beyond the documentation of events, he tells the stories of those who have no voice of their own, with empathy, honesty and intensity. He is an eight-time winner of the World Press Photo Award. He co-founded Noor photo agency and has also presented his work in several books.
Torben Bayer
Torben Bayer has been with Gira since 1996 and its Head of Marketing and Brand Development since 2008, making significant contributions to strengthen the company’s market position. He meets the changes brought about by digitalization at various lev- els, in particular the growing importance of social media with its online dialogues, and uses the opportunities offered by innovative communication and service models.
Nadin Heinich
Nadin Heinich is a curator, author, entrepreneur, and founder of plan A, a communications office focusing on the future of architecture and the city. She studied architecture at the Technical University and the University of the Arts in Berlin and at the Royal Danish Academy of Arts in Copenhagen. The initiative Germany – Land of Ideas named her one of the 100 Women of Tomorrow. She writes regularly for the trade and daily press. In 2016 she founded the conference Architecture Matters.
FAST FORWARD
FAST FORWARD is the first magazine to bring together diverse voices from architecture, real estate, and politics to address big questions about the future of the city. Inspired by our conference Architecture Matters, we seek to discover what connects us beyond the obvious differences, and to engage with people who are leaving their mark on the world. Curious, free of ideology, and unafraid of differing opinions, we enter into a lively dialogue with a wide variety of actors and personalities – from start-up entrepreneurs, developers, and urban planners to war photographers.
Edited by Nadin Heinich
Founding partner: GIRA
Look inside!
Founding Partner GIRA
From the very beginning, people have been at the centre of activities for the building technology specialist Gira. Since its establishment in the summer of 1905, the company’s aim has been to make people’s lives and living more easy, convenient, and secure. A large number of engineers from different disciplines in product development and production ensure the high innovative quality of Gira solutions.
Dirk Giersiepen, managing partner: “Gira has been in the market for over 115 years – through all the years we have succeeded in helping to shape these changes. A great deal of vigilance and also humility in success are needed to ensure that we remain dynamic and aware of change. It’s important to constantly question yourself, to ask yourself the right questions.
Building services engineering is undergoing profound change as a sector. Gira is already one of the leading full-range suppliers of intelligent system solutions for electrical and networked digital building control. Beyond that we want to continue to provide new impulses and finding solutions that are both relevant and inspiring for architecture as well as the real estate industry.”
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