SWA International
Master plan Premnitz, Brandenburg, Germany2025
Premnitz Master Plan
The Connecting Worlds initiative has reached another milestone. After the exhibition and event series Connecting Worlds | Journeys through Dreams and Realities
was successfully realized with the development and presentation of guiding principles, the next exhibition and event will follow in Premnitz in the second quarter of 2025.
The managing director of the municipal housing association PWG has provided the ideal exhibition and event rooms in the former Premnitz city library.
Here, the master plan studies of Dipl. Ing. Arch. Sebastian Wagner and Prof. Klaus Theo Brenner, the work of the students of the chair of Prof. Nanni Grau at the TU Berlin
and Tobias Schrammek on the transformation of the prefabricated building in Premnitz as well as the short-term designs of the BHT students of Prof. Ayse Hicasmaz-Heitele on the Third Place*) on the site of the former officers' mess in Rathenow
These will be accompanied by presentations, workshops and lectures for the public, probably from April to July 2025 in connection with a possible IBA34 (International Building Exhibition in the Berlin-Brandenburg Metropolitan Area).
The municipal housing company PWG maintains close contact with the city of Premnitz in this regard in order to bring the relevant issues to the city's committees and to make a contribution to the future urban development of Premnitz.
*)In 1989, the US sociologist Ray Oldenburg published The Great Good Place, in which he comprehensively presented his concept of the Third Place for the first time.
In his view, the First Place serves family life, the Second Place serves work life. The Third Place offers a balance between both and is a meeting place for the neighborhood community.
Master Plan Spitak, Armenia
Revitalization of the destroyed city
On September 7, 1988, an earthquake destroyed several cities in Armenia and killed thousands of people.
In Spitak alone, a town directly above one of the hypocentres, approximately 90% of the 20,000-strong population died.
The earthquake is not the first of this magnitude and, if experts are to be believed, it will not be the last either.
At the same time, Armenia is politically highly sensitive. The solution for reconstruction cannot therefore be achieved through standardized Russian rapid construction methods, but rather, in the context of glasnost and perestroika, requires a new concept that takes into account the Armenian population.
As architects, there is only one real way for us to help: by eliminating the damage caused, not just in a technical sense, but by creating a new, designed environment.
Ecological aspect
The damage caused by the earthquake was further exacerbated by poor construction and centralized industrial facilities. Due to poor workmanship and inadequate bracing, one of the industrial buildings collapsed, killing 600 people. This was also due to the fact that a power plant is located nearby, which is said to have sustained severe damage in the earthquake. To prevent a recurrence, a concept was developed based on the sensible use of the four elements: fire, water, earth, and air:
Thus, different systems were developed to meet the different requirements, placing both the energy and water balance of the future Spitak in a circular system between nature and humans.
Energy systems
Since winds constantly blow along the mountainside on the north side of the city, we organized a chain of wind turbines along the mountain's edge. At the same time, a solar power plant is rising on a hill facing the sun.
Water systems
The water is channeled through underground mountain streams to individual households, where it is diverted to micro-sewage treatment plants and removed from the sewage by plants. From there, it flows via a stream to another water treatment plant, which it passes through before flowing into the river in the valley.