Berlin’s Baugruppe model, a cooperative development mechanism extensively applied to the production of collectively planned housing, provided an essential precedent and organisational framework for the project’s realisation.

Widely recognised as an exemplary case, this project illustrates how grassroots civic engagement can generate not only an architectural intervention but also enduring local frameworks for continued collective action.

Conceived as a “city within the city”, it constitutes a self-organised micro-urban fabric composed of heterogeneous spatial and functional elements at a deliberately modest scale.

The spatial configuration integrates zones that are public, semi-public, and private, encouraging diverse forms of use and interaction. Its occupants are primarily creative practitioners and non-profit organisations — ranging in size from sole operators to collectives of up to 35 members — who seek stable, long-term working conditions in response to the displacing effects of Berlin’s accelerating gentrification. Some inhabitants have also established their residences on-site, occupying units deliberately designed to accommodate individualised live/work configurations.