Delugan Meissl Associated Architects – DMAA

DMAA H.O.M.E House 2021 1

DMAA Energy Transition, Post-Mining Landscape 2

DMAA Energy Transition, Marshalling Yards 3

DMAA H.O.M.E House 2021 4

DMAA Taiyuan Botanical Garden 5

DMAA Shanghai Valley 6

DMAA Gasstrasse Hamburg 7

DMAA Expo Cultural Park Greenhouse Garden Shanghai 8

DMAA World Horticultural Exhibition Chengdu 9

DMAA Shanghai Valley 56

Delugan Meissl Associated
Architects
DMAA
NON
ENDLESS
SPACE
Edited by Wolfgang Fiel
DMAA
NON
ENDLESS
SPACE

The equivalent of one soccer pitch of soil is eroded every five seconds.
Planet A
Mass
Atmosphere
Distances
Age: 4.6 billion years
Surface: 510.1 million km 2
Equatorial diameter:
12,756.27 km
Average temperature:
15 ºC (59 ºF)
Air pressure: 1.014 bar
Total
5.9724 E24 kg
Composition
Iron: 32.1 %
Oxygen: 30.1 %
Silicon: 15.1 %
Magnesium: 13.9 %
Sulphur: 2.9 %
Nickel: 1.8 %
Calcium: 1.5 %
Aluminium: 1.4 %
Trace elements: 1.2 %
Composition
Nitrogen: 78.08 %
Oxygen: 20.95 %
Argon: 0.93 %
Carbon dioxide: 0.042 %
Neon: 0.002 %
to the Moon:
383,398 km
(60 × the diameter of the Earth)
to Mars:
54.6 million km
to the Sun:
149.6 million km
Surface structure of the Earth
Water
Land (excluding cities)
Cities
70.7
26.3
3 %
360,570,000 km
134,130,000 km 2
15,300,000 km 2 Surface structure of the land areas
Arable land 32.86 %
Natural spaces 27.64 %
Forests 26.95 %
49,116,226 km 2
41,313,584 km 2
40,274,680 km 2
% 2
%
Antarctica 9.47 % 14,148,361 km 2
Inland waters 3.06 % 4,577,149 km 2
As a result of misuse, around 24 billion tons of fertile ground are lost every year.
Cold Zone
Temperate Zone
Subtropical Zone
Tropical Zone
Location: 60-90º northern and
southern latitudes
Position of the Sun: 53º above/below the
horizon
Temperature: -47 to 0 ºC average,
-89 ºC min, 25 ºC max
Length of the day: 0-24 hours
Climate: ice and tundra
Location: 40-60º northern and
southern latitudes
Position of the Sun: from 73 to 0º
Temperature: 0-20 ºC average,
-40 ºC min, +40 ºC max
Length of the day: 4-16 hours
Climate: warm or cool
Location: 23.5-40º northern and
southern latitudes
Position of the Sun: 90-27º above
the horizon
Temperature: > 20-35 ºC average,
-5 ºC min, 66 ºC max
Length of the day: 9-15 hours
Climate: tropical summer,
non-tropical winter
Location: 0-23.5º northern and
southern latitudes
Position of the Sun: 90-43º above
the horizon
Temperature: >20-30 ºC average,
0 ºC min, 40 ºC max
Length of the day: 10-13.5 hours
Climate: humid-warm

Non Endless Space Projects 59
Biodiversity and Artificial Ecosystems
Central Park Taopu Shanghai
Location
Putuo District, Shanghai
Competition
1st prize
Start of planning 03/2015
Project team
Diogo Teixeira
Project partners
VALENTIEN+VALENTIEN,
Landschaftarchitekten und
Stadtplaner SRL
Consultants
Bollinger+ Grohmann
ZT GmbH, Brian Cody,
Yiju Ding
DMAA has been working for several years
on a diverse range of projects in China,
the first of which resulted from an enquiry
by the German landscape designers
Valentien & Valentien in 2015. As landscape
architecture traditionally enjoys a
much higher status in China than building,
it was no surprise that the joint competition
entry that emerged from this enquiry
addressed the transformation of a derelict
industrial site in the heart of Shanghai into
a high-quality local recreation zone. The
starting point for DMAA’s project included
not only a freshly vacated site, on which
the ground and the groundwater were
contaminated, but also air pollution levels
and a municipal waste management system
that required improvement. As a result,
DMAA decided to design the project
as an ‘exhibition park’ that would highlight
the decontamination of the ground and
the groundwater by showcasing the plantbased
methods for carrying out this process
and developing special water towers,
equipped with PV modules, that were capable
of not only supplying the entire district
with drinking water at times of peak
demand, but also delivering the electricity
required for refilling the resulting water
tanks. Alongside these aspects of the ecological
repair of the city, the programme
also proposed the creation of a science
park and a concert hall, which interact
with the landscape in very special ways
and can be seen as models of a proactive
public relations approach that seeks to engrain
the importance of urban green space
in the public consciousness.
Expo Cultural Park Greenhouse
Garden Shanghai
Location
Guo Zhan Lu Pudong Xinqu,
Shanghai
Competition
1st prize
Start of planning 03/2019
Start of construction 01/2020
Completion
2023 (estimated)
Site area
47,000 m2
Gross surface area
41,000 m2
Construction volume 340,000 m3
Height
35m
Project manager
Diogo Teixeira
Project team
Yue Chen, Jurgis Gecys,
Thomas Peter-Hindelang,
Toms Kampars, Prima
Mathawabhan, Sebastian
Michalski, Ernesto Mulch,
Maximilian Tronnier, Toni
Nachev, Marillies Wedl
Coordination
Yiju Ding
Consultants
Executive planning
SIADR Co.Ltd
Structural engineering Bollinger+Grohmann ZT
GmbH
Energy design
Transsolar Energietechnik
GmbH
Landscape design
Yiju Ding
The project for these new greenhouses in
central Shanghai is highly influenced by
the presence of a historical reference—
the old steel workshop, which was once
an important catalyst for the city’s industrial
growth—and inspired by the constant
relationship between opposites.
This duality is exemplified by the ‘Yin
and Yang’ ideology that informs many aspects
of the project. Tradition and future,
industrial and natural, orthogonal and organic,
stillness and movement, silence and
sound, land and water, steel and glass
are reconciled in a gracious gesture that
is experienced by visitors as a series of
unique moments.
As an important symbol for the wider
area, the steel workshop combines with
these new elements to play a vital role in
the project by setting the tone and the
scale for the development of the exhibition
spaces. The geometries grow organically
within and around the strict existing grid,
forming a vivid and natural silhouette that
never touches yet fully respects this original
framework. The multiple curvatures
generated by the shift from the organic towards
the orthogonal (and the structural)
create an intuitively sinuous envelope.
A range of natural scenarios and climates
are recreated inside the four single-glazed
pavilions. This ensures a stimulating
visitor experience: from the canyons,
sandy dunes and plants of the Desert Pavilion
and the swamps, waterfalls and tropical
vegetation of the Natural Rainforest to
the digital caves, fruit trees and flowers of
the Cloud Garden Hall.
The roof contains circular windows
that help the plants to grow by maximising
the sunlight entering the greenhouses.
Like stars high up in the sky these openings
combine perfectly with the organic
geometry to create a project with no dominant
orientation.
Taiyuan, Botanical Garden
Location
Jinyuan District, Taiyuan
City, China
Start of planning 2015
Completion 2021
Site area
182 hectares
Gross surface area 54,600 m 2
Construction volume 329,861.00 m 3
Project managers
Sebastian Brunke, Diogo
Teixeira
Project team
Maria Dirnberger, Volker
Gessendorfer, Bernd Heger,
Thomas Peter-Hindelang,
Klara Jörg, Rangel
Karaivanov, Leonard Kern,
Kinga Kwasny, Toni Nachev,
Martin Schneider, Petras
Vestartas
Coordination
Yiju Ding
Consultants
Architecture, executive Institute of Shanghai,
planning
Architectural Design &
Research (Co.,Ltd.)
Structural engineering Bollinger+Grohmann
Ingenieure
Timber structures
StructureCraft
Façade
Bollinger+Grohmann
Ingenieure
HVACR/electrics
Cody Energy Design
Landscape architecture Beijing BLDJ, Landscape
Architecture Institute
Co.,Ltd.
Landscape design,
Valentien+Valentien
greenhouses
Landschaftarchitekten und
Stadtplaner SRL
Photography
CreatAR
Expo Cultural Park Greenhouse Garden Shanghai
The project was launched with the ambitious
objective of transforming a former
coal-mining area into a landscape park,
which is not only a model for the landscape
design that is so essential in China,
but also contains a building infrastructure
that can be used for researching into and
offering people access to and information
about natural ecosystems. The politically
stated need to create high-quality leisure
areas in or close to cities and to find ways
of controlling the resulting large numbers
of visitors formed the basis for the definition
of a spatial programme. This envisaged
not only the creation of the landscape
park itself, but also the construction
of a central entrance building with
a nature museum and administration facility,
three greenhouses, a restaurant,
a bonsai museum and a related research
centre with a library and staff
accommodation.

DMAA Projects 60
The centrepiece of the buildings, which
are very precisely inserted into the modelled
topography, consists of three greenhouses,
which were realised as three hemispherical
timber lattice domes. The construction
of these greenhouses required
the pooling of technical know-how in the
areas of energy design, thermal performance,
structural integrity and glazing
as well as assembly and logistics. With a
free span of over 90 metres, the broadest
of the three domes is one of the largest
such timber lattice structures worldwide.
All three domes consist of double-curved
laminated timber beams, which are arranged
in two or three intersecting layers.
The domes are glazed with double-curved
panes of glass, some of which include
openable windows. The main beams of
the timber structures that, from above, resemble
shells, are tightly bunched together
on the north side of the base and fan
out towards the south, creating a structurally
varied translucency that optimises
the solar gain. A detailed knowledge of
local climatic conditions, the thermal demands
inside the structure and the structural
efficiency and availability of suitable
constructional resources were key parameters
for successfully minimising the ecological
footprint.
DMAA’s very early decision to use
timber as widely as possible in this project
permitted not only extensive prefabrication
but also a high quality of execution,
while also opening up a rich seam of
potential historical associations.
The entrance building, which is approached
from the access road via a large
courtyard, leads visitors up an open stair
that passes through a circular opening in
the slab onto a huge roof terrace, from
which they can oversee the entire park
and become aware of the building’s twin
function as an interface between architecture
and landscape. The cantilevered viewing
platform soars above the area of water
at the heart of the park and directs visitors
towards the three greenhouses in the botanical
gardens.
The terraces of the bonsai museum,
which are laid out in concentric circles,
provide the constructional framework for
this precise presentation of an ancient Far
Eastern aspect of Garden Art. The path
taken by visitors reflects the principle of
a domesticated natural landscape. Just
like the mighty domes of the greenhouses,
the base of the bonsai museum also
reacts dynamically with the modelled topography
of the landscape and the surface
of the pool.
The research centre contains laboratories,
studios, office buildings, workshops,
meeting rooms, lecture rooms and
a library and is broken down into a number
of pavilions of different sizes, which are
linked together by a common connecting
block at ground floor level.
The sculptural articulation of the
overall concept is based on traditional
Chinese timber roof structures, which it
attempts to do justice to by reinterpreting
their structural and geometrical logic.
The restaurant and tea house is a perfect
example of the application of the principles
of piled and interwoven loadbearing
layers, of creating steps and scale by adding
or removing layers close to supports or
edges and of playing with proportional relationships
between structure and space.
The constant dialogue between inside
and outside and the architecturally subtle
articulation of the interface between architecture
and landscape are reflected in
the sculptural modelling of the landscape
park, which merges organically with the
built infrastructure.
World Horticultural Exhibition
Chengdu
Location
Chengdu, China
Competition 03/2022
Gross floor area
22,541 m 2 (Main Pavilion)
1,919 m 2 (WHE Tower)
7,045 m 2 (Plant Pavilion)
3,498 m 2 (Park Exhibition
Pavilion)
Site area 1,773,765 m 2
Project managers
Sebastian Brunke, Ernesto
M. Mulch
Project team
Sebastian Brunke, Nele
Herrmann, Thomas Peter-
Hindelang, Gregor Hilpert,
Ernesto M. Mulch, Dušan
Sekulić
Visualisation
Toni Nachev
Coordination
Yiju Ding
Consultants
Structural engineering Bollinger + Grohmann
ZT GmbH
Nature plays the leading role in this project
for the International Horticultural Exhibition
in Chengdu, the capital of China’s
Sichuan Province. DMAA has developed
an appropriate topography, in which
a small number of self-confidently articulated
architectural settings enter into a
harmonious dialogue with the surrounding
landscape. The physical footprint of the
buildings is minimised, while elements of
the natural context are integrated into the
overall architectural concept. The careful
management of the relationships between
paths, thresholds and spaces transforms
the sensual experience of this designed
‘environment’ into a parcours of hybrid intensities
that lends the place a very specific
character.
The Main Pavilion is situated very close
to the new area of water and realised as
a smoothly articulated monolith, whose
crystalline geometric form docks in just
a few places—and contrasts powerfully—
with the topography of the landscape. The
conical elements that rise from the roof recall
the natural growth of stalagmites and
give the structure its assertive appearance,
while also drawing daylight deep into the
building. The typology of the main pavilion
is that of an arena-like hall with a range of
functional areas that merge with the annular
circulation system to create a coherent
spatial continuum. Surrounded by an
Taiyuan Botanical Garden Taiyuan Botanical Garden
Taiyuan Botanical Garden

Non Endless Space Projects 61
running diagonally through space generates
a wide range of views of the intermediate
space, the exhibition complex and
the entire park. The viewing platform offers
a spectacular 360º panorama of the
park and the other pavilions.
Spatial architecural interpretation of
The design bamboo of forest the Plant Pavilion envisages
the creation of a light transparent
membrane that, by wrapping around
the central glasshouse in the form of a climatic
envelope, Spatial provides architecural interpretation the heat of and humidity
required by the rare tropical
bamboo forest
species.
The large area of water and mass of rock
within the dome store this heat, the waterfalls
control the humidity of the air and the
south-facing glazing maximises the intensity
of the direct sunlight and, hence, minimises
the need for additional energy.
In order to ensure that the landscaping
is as natural as possible, DMAA is cooperating
with local experts, who are dedicated
to highlighting the importance of nature
as a shared learning and experiential
environment.
Finite Resources
Arena Wien World Horticultural Exhibition Chengdu
extensive, raised exhibition and event landscape,
the heart of the building becomes a
central square. The physical focus of the
complex, this will be home to a wide range
of events and activities. Almost exclusively
made of wood, the structure is notable
for its huge spans and combines with the
large areas of photovoltaic panels on the
roof to make a huge contribution to the
overall sustainability of the project.
One objective of the steel structure of
the Expo Tower is to use as little material
as possible in creating a landmark, whose
individual footings underline the project’s
general aim of minimising the physical interaction
between buildings and landscape.
This “sculpture of columns and
steps” is articulated as a clearly quadratic
orthogonal form that breaks down into further,
ever smaller fragments of stair. The
structure of the tower plays with the metaphor
of a bamboo forest, which is intersected
by two diagonal surfaces that dissolve
into individual flights of steps. This
composition of vertical columns and steps
Arena Wien
Location
Neu Marx, Vienna
Competition 2020
Site area 40,500 m 2
Gross floor area 102,280 m 2
Construction volume 687,701 m 3
Height
34.70 m
Project manager
Dietmar Feistel
Project team Two inclined planes Ernesto describing M. interacting Mulch,
pathways Alexander Nanu,
Jurgis Gecys,
Thomas Peter-Hindelang
Consultants
Structural engineering Bollinger+Grohmann
Energy design Two inclined planes Transsolar describing interacting Energietechnik
pathways
GmbH
Rather than being a self-referential, standalone
building the WH Arena is precisely
adapted to its urban context: The geometry,
proportions and urban positioning
of the hall itself refer to the neighbouring
Marx Halle while the materiality and scale
of the base enable it to dovetail with the
surrounding urban fabric.
The ensemble of arena and base is
held in place and completed by a highpoint
at its northern edge that marks the main
entrance while also establishing a clear
spatial separation Main view from platforms the with 360° less attractive
area to the north.
Main view platforms with 360°
The streams of visitors coming from different
directions flow together in an “urban
foyer”, which is inserted between the main
entrance, the terraces and terraced steps
that are located opposite this entrance and
the high-rise slab.
The result is a dynamic public square
that will invite people to linger awhile and
have some fun, even while the Arena is being
rebuilt—this fore-COURT will become
and richly experiential urban ante-ROOM, a
form of stage, which can also be occupied
for its own sake, fully independently of the
activities taking place in the Arena (for public
viewings and open-air performances, etc.).
A key starting point for the visual identity
of the façade was the desire to transform
the notion of connection and of the
circulation of visitors within the Arena into
a spatial and design idea.
Staircases and landings are reflected
in the façade as form-giving stylistic elements
that establish the façade’s defining
hexagonal identity. The result is a functional,
aesthetic and interior solution that elevates
a simple principle of circulation into
a special, high-quality space for coming together
and communicating.

DMAA Projects 62
Atlantic Towers Erfurt East
Location
Erfurt, Germany
Competition
12/2019, 1st prize
Start of planning 2020
Gross floor area Hotel: 20,656 m 2
Office: 18,623 m 2
Construction volume Hotel: 50,886 m 3
Office: 62,202 m 3
Height
Hotel: 49.25 m Office: 59 m
Project manager
Philip Beckmann
Project team
Sebastian Brunke, Dorota
Wojciga, Tom Peter-
Hindelang, Ezgi Özkan
Visualisation
Toni Nachev
Model
Modellart, Michael Eisenkölbl
Consultants
Structural engineering B+G Ingenieure, Bollinger
und Grohmann GmbH
Building physics
CES clean energy solutions
GesmbH
The plot, which is located where Altstadtgraben
meets the railway lines, forms the
city centre end of the so-called Panoramasteg,
or panorama walkway, the pedestrian
connection between historic
downtown Erfurt and the future ICE City.
The towers, which DMAA proposed for
these neuralgic points as part of a competition
process, are oriented in line with the
given building lines and building heights, but
their urban impact is characterised by two
significant features.
The proposed hybrid timber-concrete
building solution incorporates the Thüringer
Leiter, a half-timbered construction method
traditional to the region and, in combination
with the full-height façade glazing, communicates
an impression of elegant lightness.
This insertion of the ensemble into the historic
context of the surrounding urban fabric,
which is both ecologically sustainable
and architecturally restrained, is reinforced
by a second identity-creating measure. The
precisely sculpted building volumes sit on a
natural stone base that plays the twin roles
of transparent threshold and inviting urban
terrace. The ground floor entrance to the
building’s core functional areas is separated
from the public role of the terrace and,
thanks to its range of restaurants, also invites
visitors to take a stroll or, simply, a rest.
The way in which the end of Schmidtstedter
Straße merges into an open stair is
a historical reference to Erfurt Cathedral
while its precise position on the boundary
between the plot and the flood ditch establishes
a flowing transition between the Old
Town and ICE City that is enriched by a series
of precise visual relationships.
The use of the wing facing the old
town as a hotel makes it possible to integrate
specific operational and general restaurant
spaces into the surrounding city
and transforms the foyer into an elegant
extension of the adjacent urban realm.
The volume on the eastern edge of the
flood ditch that is largely occupied by offices
and corresponds with the hotel in both
technical and formal terms, self-confidently
opens towards the future ICE City, which is
progressively developing into a new creative,
cultural and culinary urban centre.
Gasstrasse Hamburg
Location
Gasstrasse Bahrenfeld,
Hamburg
Competition 07/2021
Site area 10,471 m 2
Gross floor area Part A—31,543m 2
Part B—10,954m 2
Height
57 m
Project manager
Sebastian Brunke
Project team
Tom Peter-Hindelang, Anna
Piasecka, Adrian Stein
Visualisation
Ultramarine, Giulio Pellizzon
Model
Modellart, Michael
Eisenkölbl
Consultants
Structural engineering Bollinger+Grohmann
Landscape design
Rabe Landschaft, Hamburg
Energy design
Transsolar Klima
Engineering
Cost estimation
Wenzel+Wenzel
combine with green external spaces at
every level to create a positive environment
for working and communication.
The timber structure is topped off
by almost column-free steel elements,
whose shed roofs recall industrial halls
and, hence, refer to the history of the site.
This rooftop level consists of larger, flexible
spaces, which are ideal for not only open
office landscapes but also such functions
as internal events, conferences and parties.
A generous series of terraces with a
range of external spaces and flowing transitions
between interior and exterior is also
created between these ‘halls’ along the entire
length of the building.
These office and commercial buildings
complete the Gasstrasse Quarter and lend
it a powerful presence towards the south.
An open space that is shared by the office
workers and the local people integrates
the ensemble into the neighbourhood. The
extensive areas of new trees, gardens full
of wild shrubs and natural green spaces
are connected by a dense network of footpaths.
The complex also enjoys excellent
public transport connections.
Besides the predominant use of timber,
the combination of geothermal energy
and roof-mounted photovoltaic panels
also ensures that the project is particularly
sustainable.
This commercial project on Gasstrasse in
Hamburg Bahrenfeld has been structured
at a number of scales, from the building
volume to the façade, as a means of integrating
it carefully into its context.
The individual volumes facing
Gasstrasse and the south are shifted
backwards and forwards to create a sequence
of special external and forecourt
spaces that transform the overall complex
from a series of large-scale volumes
into an ensemble of rhythmically arranged
and aesthetically similar individual buildings.
Generous openings between these
elements establish a series of vistas, while
also reinforcing the legibility of the connected
volumes.
One objective of the project is to sustainably
enhance the potential and character
of Gasstrasse. The streetscape is addressed
as a whole and given a sense of
continuity by a uniform surface treatment.
This underpins the development of a dynamic
ground floor zone, which is closely intertwined
with the functions at the upper levels.
While this ground floor is executed in reinforced
concrete in order to create a
‘solid’ base, the office areas above consist
of modular ‘realms of possibility’ that
Atlantic Towers Erfurt East

DMAA H.O.M.E House 2021 63

DMAA H.O.M.E House 2021 64

DMAA H.O.M.E House 2021 65

DMAA Central Park Taopu Shanghai 66

DMAA Expo Cultural Park Greenhouse Garden Shanghai 67

Delugan Meissl Associated
Architects
Life on
Mars
Delugan Meissl Associated
Architects

Non Endless Space Intro 79
Text by Wolfgang Fiel
At first glance, some people will ask what Life on Mars has to do with the day-to-day
challenges of the architecture business. But if we approach this question via the subject
to which this section is dedicated, the connection becomes much clearer. The investigation
of ‘domesticated nature’—in both cultural-historical terms and from the perspective
of current developments, (which I will address at the end of this text)—is very
closely related to the human ‘urge’ to find the ways and means that will enable us to
master and, hence, control natural processes. This aspiration is embodied, for example,
by the archetype of the ‘dwelling’, which ensures that humans remain protected from
the rigours of nature. But this archetype, which initially appears to be the inversion of
the paradigm of controllability, is based, on closer examination, on the same principle:
the establishment of a barrier, a demarcation between an interior and an exterior, a
zone of protection and control, which is structurally separated from its ‘wild’ surroundings.
Besides addressing functional requirements, this demarcation or separation also
has a symbolic character. The wall or façade is the visible expression of concealment,
of an intimate privacy, that provides a sense of security, while everything that remains
or must remain outside, is public and, therefore, exposed.
In the 1950s, the term ‘environment’ entered the vocabulary of architecture and art,
where it essentially describes the physical manifestation of the boundary between the
inside and the outside, between the familiar and the unfamiliar (Vilém Flusser). In one decisive
area, however, it goes further. This new aspect signalised the more-or-less simultaneous
‘technologisation’ of constructional developments, which promised to liberate
architecture from its origins in the ‘primitive hut’ and to lift it, in the spirit of Modernism,
from the dirt and mud of the natural earth and—to paraphrase Le Corbusier—allow
the assembled buildings to play in the unclouded sunlight. By doing this, the Modern
Movement anticipated, to a certain extent, the developments that culminated just a few
decades later in the feverish attempts to put a man on the Moon and to transpose the
founding myth of the United States to the ‘endless expanse’ of space. It was against
this background that an obsession with the ‘next frontier’ became a permanent aspect
of the collective fantasy of all those for whom the universe promised far more scope
for discovery than their limited existence down here on earth. The sense of excess that
goes hand-in-hand with this promise appears to awaken in us a collective thirst for adventure
or impulse to be rebellious or reckless.
Amongst other things, this has led to the creation of a whole series of cinematic heroes,
who courageously ride out to face the unknown rather than comfortably settle
down behind the defensive walls represented by established boundaries. The things
that drag this dream of an extra-terrestrial existence back to the solid ground of reality

DMAA Intro 80
are the apparently banal—in the wider context—human needs for oxygen, water and
food, all of which are not easy to come by in the right form in the places in which these
dreams are set. A recent example of a cinematographic treatment of this subject is
Ridley Scott’s “The Martian”, in which Matt Damon plays the astronaut Mark Watney,
who has been left behind on Mars and faces the question of how he should organise
the protected space of the base station in order to survive in such a ‘hostile’ environment
until his hoped-for rescue. With the objective of enabling his reserves of food to
last longer he transforms part of the space station into a sort of greenhouse in which
he plants potatoes, which he irrigates with water that he produces himself. Something
that he couldn’t have achieved in the atmospheric conditions of the surface of Mars—
the creation of a controlled environment that simulates conditions in which people and
plants can survive for a certain period of time—has been made possible by the protective
envelope of the space station. This cinematic ‘redeployment’ recalls the experiment
Biosphere 2 that took place in Arizona in the USA in the early 1990s. Here, a building
complex was constructed with the objective of creating an autarkic ecosystem, which,
as the name suggests, should guarantee environmental conditions similar to those on
earth, while also generating information that could be evaluated and applied to the development
and operation of manned bases on the Moon and on Mars.
When such facilities are interpreted as greenhouses, we realise that this search for artificially
created environmental conditions has predecessors in the annals of architectural
history. These include the orangeries that were popular amongst the royal courts
of 16th-century Europe and the structures that were used to house collections of exotic
decorative and agricultural plants, above all from Asia, America and Australia, during
the Colonial Era. As exhibits in the ‘Plant Museums’ that spread rapidly across
Europe and North America during the second half of the 19th century in the form of
botanical gardens, the species displayed in these greenhouses were also presented
as symbolising the mastery of nature. One of the best-known recent examples is the
world’s largest greenhouse, the Eden Project, which opened in Cornwall in England in
2001 and consists of four intersecting geodesic domes built in line with the methods
of Buckminster Fuller.
Over the course of the past two decades, these structures that, up until the end of the
last century, were generally built as either tourist attractions or research facilities, have
become increasingly important from the perspective of both conservation and the closely-related
urgent need to protect the endangered animal and plant species that we are
duty bound to ‘enclose’ and make permanently accessible to a wider public against the
background of global warming and the looming climatic collapse. This unusual combination
of ecological awareness and didactic communication naturally continues to make
use of all possible means of controlling the climate with the help of technology, ideally
backed up by the corresponding parameters of the architectural form.
A series of current projects that DMAA has developed for eco-parks, botanical gardens
and greenhouses in China illustrates this idea of employing nature as a form of ‘plantbased
therapeutic’ restoration of urban environments and, in this sense, as a way of
researching and making targeted use of the natural capabilities of plants. As demonstrated
by the concrete case of the greenhouses in the Botanical Gardens in Taiyuan,
the technological dimensions of such efforts have moved somewhat closer to the models
from Mars and are beginning, for example, to hint at decisive advances in the context
of the global food industry, which we will examine more closely later in this book.

Delugan Meissl Associated
Architects
Bio
diversity
and
Delugan Meissl Associated
Architects
Artificial
Eco
systems

Delugan Meissl Associated
Architects
Bio
diversity
and
Delugan Meissl Associated
Architects
Artificial
Eco
systems

Non Endless Space The Nature of Everything 83
Text by Wolfgang Fiel
The current transformation of our idea of nature is tangible in formal terms. Firstly, the
debate about limiting the damage that has already been caused by global warming permits
us to speak of a shift in global awareness. And secondly, the current pandemic has
generated a global need for places of recreation that, ideally, have as much greenery as
possible. Our city planners are attempting to react to this massive pressure for change,
sometimes with impressive speed. Private cars, which have long been regarded as sacrosanct,
are suddenly having to make way for newly created movement zones and bicycle
or multipurpose routes and have become central to the debate about addressing
traditional aspects of the urban way of life. The fact that, until recently, this way of life
was equated in our collective consciousness with the almost total renunciation of nature
is reflected in the paradigms of modern city planning, which employed the mantra
of hygiene to declare war on the squalor of untamed nature. Against the background of
the developments discussed above, the paradigm of concreted cleanliness, which appears,
from today’s perspective, to be a reductionist short circuit, is being questioned
in many places and, given the scale of the looming problems, being transformed into
new forms of action. For example, anyone who regarded Haussmann’s intervention as
unique in the annals of European city planning will have been more than a little amazed
in 2020 when the Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo presented the plan for transforming the
Périphérique—the ring motorway built around Paris between 1954 and 1973—into a
green urban boulevard. Der Spiegel, for example, described the idea as “revolutionary”.
This, admittedly, highly spectacular example may just be one of many to have recently
been presented to an amazed public in a range of locations. And yet, regardless of any
hurdles that these will face before they can be realised, one thing is clear: The importance
of nature in the context of enclosed space is being fundamentally re-evaluated.
And it is unavoidable that planners will play a leading role in this process. Whether this
role will also be accepted and imbued with the necessary vision by all those affected
will, of course, be determined elsewhere.
H.O.M.E. House
DMAA saw the invitation to develop the so-called H.O.M.E. House 2021 as an opportunity
to investigate a number of subjects that have come to the fore in their work in recent
years at the scale of the detached house as a means of also questioning the extent
to which this type of building will continue to be relevant in the future.
The tradition of investigating—both implicitly and explicitly—the “House of the
Future” can be traced a long way back in architectural history. Every investigation of
the subject of living space revolves around the questions of whether, implicitly, current
standards and conventions should be unquestioningly adopted and, hence, perpetuated

DMAA The Nature of Everything 84
or, explicitly, whether transformation or innovation should be risked in order to attempt
something new and, thus, add a new facet to the ‘notion’ of living. The avant-garde and
often uncritical belief in progress of post-war modernism was particularly dismissive
of the so-called context, of issues related to the concrete spatial, socio-cultural, economic
or political/ideological framework of a project. In this regard, much has changed
since postmodernism; particularly against the background of the debate about global
climate change. All at once, the social, cultural and ecological impact of concrete building
measures is being called into question, investigated and, where possible, mitigated
or, ideally, eradicated completely. We are suddenly focussed on the social and cultural
added value that results from or is encouraged by individual projects. Due to its scarcity,
building land has suddenly become a valuable resource, which we must handle with
care and use as little of as possible, both in cities and in the countryside.
Nature itself has also become a valuable and threatened resource and is no longer
reduced to left-over urban sites and the private greenery of the garden of one’s house
in the country. Architecture has become a profession that places great importance on
taking care of the recreational qualities and biodiversity of our green spaces and regards
these as key quality criteria. Tiny gardens at the bases of trees and planted façades
designed to cool central urban zones, expanded parks, continuous green space, the
direct seepage of surface water over large areas or the use of rooftops for small city
gardens are just a few examples that show how rapidly and comprehensively this ‘new’
ecological awareness has gained ground in architecture.
However, what we are only just beginning to distinguish against this background
is the outline of a ‘new’ relationship with nature that has lost its innocence in this
‘Anthropocene’ Age, as a result of which it is no longer possible to simply differentiate
in line with the dual logic of ‘man-made’ or ‘untouched’. The expression ‘Anthropocene’
(from the ancient Greek ἄνθρωπος ánthropos—human—and καινός—new) is a proposed
name for a new geo-chronological age: in which humans have become one of
the most important influencing factors upon the Earth’s biological, geological and atmospheric
processes. Nature is the result of a ‘technological condition’ that now has
to be determined. Nature, reshaped by technology, is thus becoming an integral part
of the architectural assignment and can no longer be understood as a picturesque or
symbolic foil to a completely autonomously designed architectural setting. This is where
DMAA’s proposal comes in:
House and nature become one, can no longer be truly separated and, in this form
of hybrid simultaneity, are also technologically dependent upon each other. The building
physics considerations regarding the heating and cooling of the building go hand in
hand with the capacity of the glasshouse, which wraps itself like a green cloak around
the hard core of the building structure. The precisely developed envelope makes a significant
contribution to the formal significance of the house. The ancillary spaces are
located in a partly buried base, which opens out via the internal circulation into a shellshaped,
covered living room that is located to the rear and smoothly merges into the
greenery of the glasshouse.
The thermal differentiation between the individual spaces follows the principle of
an old farmhouse, whose living spaces are arranged in a ring around the oven in the
open kitchen in the hall as a result of which they are much warmer than the bedrooms
on the floor above. The glasshouse offers, on the one hand, an enlarged living space
and, on the other hand, a piece of domesticated nature, which can be shaped, used and
changed in line with the wishes of the residents and within the framework of the concrete
microclimatic conditions. Thereby, rather than contrasting with the organic forms
of the surrounding nature, the architectural form is the designed result of a ‘re-naturalised’
living environment, in which the specific qualities of both aspects are combined
into a new symbiosis.
In this sense, the novelty of this house can be found in the uncompromising and
flowing simultaneity of nature and space and in the extensive freedom with which the
architecture can perform its unique role of defining the interfaces with the broader context.
It is just as possible to multiply this principle horizontally or vertically as it is to find
an alternative urban or rural location. Against this background, the idea of an alternative
use as an urban apartment block with a communal green space comes to the fore.
Hence, the ideas behind the H.O.M.E. House are also currently being applied to the development
of an urban apartment building in Bremen.
Residential Greenhouse Bremen
This project by DMAA, which is still under development, is an expression of the desire
for the closest possible relationship with external green spaces in dense urban centres.
The residential building exemplifies how this desire can be met by constructing an
economically and socially compatible, collectively usable glasshouse on the roof of the
building. At the same time, DMAA combines this idea of a green urban crown with the
principle of circulation proposed for the building: This is a pergola, a generous space
between the building and the façade, whose rich planting acts as a natural filter placed
before the loadbearing structure that regulates the views of and the pollution coming
from the urban surroundings.
As in the H.O.M.E. House, the thermal differentiation between the individual spaces
follows the principle of an old farmhouse. Here, however, the heat extracted from
the central living space in winter is used to heat the glasshouse. The expanded living

Non Endless Space Urban Farming in Vienna 125
DOWN
Cultivating mushrooms in a cellar on the edge of Vienna
Hut & Stiel
From the humid cellar and back onto the plate. How a functioning social and climate-friendly
circular economy model can grow on yesterday’s coffee is demonstrated
by Vienna’s mushroom growers. Since 2015, this flagship urban production and distribution
project has been growing oyster mushrooms on a resource that is almost
infinitely available in a major city such as Vienna: coffee grounds. Rather than ending
up in the rubbish bin, these are collected from Vienna’s coffee houses, restaurants, industrial
kitchens and offices. In Hut & Stiel’s production facility in Vienna-Donaustadt
they are then processed into a mushroom base and used as a growing medium for oyster
mushrooms, which eventually mature in the ground-floor wine cellar of a detached
house on the edge of Vienna—before ending up being delivered as a high-quality product
in the gastronomic sector. And Hut & Stiel has taken the principle further by developing
a starter kit for cultivating mushrooms at home.
ABOUT
Fish meet vegetables on the ground in Vienna-Donaustadt
Blün
The Viennese startup Blün produces fish and vegetables in a sustainable circular economy.
The system is known as aquaponics and functions as follows: The fish, in this case
catfish, slowly develop in Vienna’s mountain spring water. A certain proportion of the
water in the ponds is changed every day and, rather than being drained off, is reused as
a source of nutrients for the vegetables. This vegetable production takes place in the
neighbouring building: “We use the filtered water from the fishponds for irrigation and
processed fish excrement as a natural fertiliser. As a result, we can completely forego
herbicide and fungicide,” says Stefan Bauer, describing the facility. Tomatoes, cucumbers,
paprika and aubergines mature in all colours and forms in a cooperatively used
greenhouse. In the next phase of expansion, the pioneering company plans to create
vertically stacked ponds or, as they are described by Gregor Hoffmann, one of Blün’s
four founders “Vertical Fish Farming!”
Addresses 1
Hut & Stiel (processing of the mushroom base)
Naufahrtweg 14a 1220 Vienna
hutundstiel.at
2
Hut & Stiel (mushroom cultivation)
Alleestraße 23 3400 Klosterneuburg
hutundstiel.at
3
Othmar Ruthner’s glass tower (vfi—vertical farm institute)
Kurpark Oberlaa
Laaer-Berg-Straße 1100 Vienna
verticalfarminstitute.org
4
Blün
Schafflerhofstraße 156 1220 Vienna
bluen.at

DMAA Weather Report 126
Wolfgang Fiel [WF] in conversation
with Marc Olefs [MO]
WF
MO
WF
MO
We spoke with Dr. Marc Olefs, Head of the Climate Research Department in the fields
of data, methods and models at the ZAMG—Zentralanstalt für Meteorologie und
Geodynamik, about the relationship between architecture, the weather and the climate
and the possibilities that we have for modelling the climate of tomorrow.
Dr. Olefs, I’d like to discuss a subject with you that has long played a role at Delugan Meissl
Associated Architects, namely, the relationship between architecture and nature. What is
the role of the climate—both directly, with regards to architecture, and also in the wider
context of our human existence and our quality of life? Who are the actors in this area?
And how must we adapt our behaviour in order to at least partly address the ongoing
changes? And, in this context, perhaps you can briefly tell me how the ZAMG defines itself
as an institution, which questions it addresses and what are the focuses of its work?
The Zentralanstalt für Meteorologie und Geodynamik, ZAMG for short, is the world’s oldest
weather service. We were established in 1851 and are based on the Hohe Warte in
Vienna. There are also four regional facilities in Innsbruck, Salzburg, Graz and Klagenfurt.
The ZAMG is the national meteorological and geophysical service. This means that we
deal with not only the weather and the climate but also with geophysics, as exemplified
by the issue of earthquakes and the related processes.
Our main roles are, on the one hand, to forecast the weather and warn the population
in good time about the impact of approaching weather events and, on the other
hand, to record, describe and classify current climatic conditions. We also analyse the
effects of climate change in a range of sectors and offer the wider public user-related
information about the impact of continuing our current behaviour compared with taking
more-or-less strict regional or global climate protection measures.
In the case of the climate, we also take sequences of measurements that are as long
and as high-quality as possible in order to be able to record the true impact of atmospheric
events. So-called climate models break these developments down into—and extrapolate
their future effects upon—individual sectors, such as tourism, energy or nature.
Do building and the use of buildings also flow into such scenarios?
We’ve known for a long time that urban areas as such are becoming warmer because
they contain more hard surfaces, which absorb more solar radiation during the day that
is only released more slowly during the night. Special high-resolution models enable
us to study the impact of, for example, the development of urban spaces. We can input
individual alterations into these scenarios, such as changes in the landscape design or
painting things white: This enables us to ask, how does this impact upon the space?

A
B
Sonnblick Observatory, Photo: ZAMG/Scheer
Measurement of the Earth’s magnetic field at the Conrad Observatory (Lower Austria), Photo: ZAMG/Lammerhuber

DMAA Weather Report 128
WF
MO
WF
MO
WF
MO
WF
MO
WF
MO
WF
MO
WF
MO
Can you briefly explain to us which types of data you can turn to in order to perform
these calculations?
In the case of urban spaces we work with ultra-high resolution airborne laser scans,
where small-scale effects such as shade or the channelling of wind fields through gaps
between buildings can interact with one another. We are already able to achieve resolutions
below the one metre range, as a result of which small-scale scenarios such as
sunlit streets surrounded by high buildings vs. shaded side streets can really be broken
down so that we can relatively realistically model the effects of local energy production.
Of course the resolution of satellite data is also constantly increasing but we
are still significantly below where we want to be. Drones also now permit us to record
meteorological effects in tiny areas and to see how temperatures and humidity levels
change in line with other parameters. Taken together with the other data, this opens
up completely new possibilities.
On the basis of both the investigation of existing urban situations and the data that
is generated, would it be possible to influence the design process of architecture, so
that architects can assess the consequences of their decisions upon, for example, the
microclimate in advance?
This is already happening in some cities. It’s not enough to do this at the level of an individual
block but, rather, one has to include the entire urban planning process. Some
cities also already have urban climatologists, who apply their expert meteorological
knowledge to the building process. But I believe that much more can be done in this
direction. It just needs more drive.
It’s also questionable whether future architects are already being adequately prepared
to address these issues at university. As far as I can say for Austria, the subjects of climate
and weather don’t yet play a major role.
As I said, some progress has already been made, but not yet, unfortunately, at the academic
level. The next step would be to implement the same measures there so that
the subject can grow, as it were, from the bottom up. I also think that it’s essential that
future architects are not only aware about concrete design-related climatology, but
also understand the global context! Because it’s important that one has heard all the
relevant basic information at least once. Even if we were able to reduce all climate-relevant
CO 2 emissions to zero overnight, it would still take 200 years for the concentration
of CO 2 in the atmosphere to fall to just ten per cent below today’s level. These
issues are incredibly complex, which is why it’s important for architects and urban planners
to understand how their own actions can be seen in a wider context, so that they
can really be regarded as climate relevant.
The ZAMG is also anchored in a global network of similar institutions. How does this
cooperation work?
The meteorological and climatological mother ship is the WMO (World Meteorological
Organization, editor’s note), which is based in Geneva, coordinates all national meteorological
centres and draws up strategies and guidelines. Within the organisation there
are various specialist areas and committees, which define the key points at a national
level for things such as the Paris Climate Agreement.
This means that the WMO is, as it were, the driver that can define targets for politicians?
We can do nothing in the sense of regulation. We present the scientific facts and draw
up so-called “What if…” scenarios. And we have to do this diplomatically.
Would you say that Austria is in any sense a model in terms of its actions in the area of
climate change? Or are there things that we could do much faster and much better?
It’s clear that we should be doing a lot more. If we want to meet the goals of the Paris
Climate Agreement, we must immediately reduce annual emissions by six per cent,
every year. But this isn’t happening, even if the issue is more strongly anchored than
ever in the government’s programme. We can use this momentum in order to increase
the pressure on politicians. But we also have to persuade the entire EU to face up to
its responsibilities: If we take the lead then the others will follow.
What can each of us do individually to stop climate change—keyword Fridays for
Future? Can you also support that as an organisation or do you have different
objectives?
It’s clear that the issue of raising awareness is a key part of our role as the national
weather service. We try to use a range of formats, such as lectures and press releases,
in order to reach as many generations as possible.

Non Endless Space Weather Report 129
WF
MO
WF
MO
WF
MO
WF
MO
I’ve seen that you also employ a method from the Anglo-Saxon world, namely Citizen
Science. How do you do this in concrete terms?
This isn’t suitable for every category of meteorological measurement, due to the issue
of data quality. One concrete example that we very successfully use is phenology, the
short and long-term observation of the flowering stage of a range of plants. People
can share information about this via an app. Another subject is damage: Whenever the
fire brigade has to go into action or a tree falls onto a road, we’re interested to know if
there’s a meteorological cause. Social media enable us to gather important information,
which isn’t currently so easy to gather using other methods. In terms of the density and
quality of information there’s still lots of potential for better measuring and classifying
such widespread phenomena, which I can’t simply record by flying over with a satellite.
How will the climate situation develop in the next few years? Do we have grounds for
hope or is it already five past midnight?
It’s never too late. The worst thing that can happen is that we reach some sort of tipping
point in the climate system, which triggers events that can’t be reversed on a human
timescale, but there are relatively high levels of uncertainty about what this could
mean. At the end of the day, the key question in this area is how quickly we’re able to
adapt to change. After all, the climate has always been changing, albeit not so fast as
the climate change that is being caused at the moment by human activity. The Earth
won’t come to an end, but we won’t be able to adapt as quickly as before. That’s why
we should do everything we can to keep the temperature and the resulting damage at
an acceptable level, so that future generations will also be able to enjoy a planet with
the same quality of life. The likelihood of this is extremely hard to predict, because political
and economic interests are also involved. But I’m an optimist: Our aim must be
to come as close to the Paris climate targets as possible.
A final question: Is the city the problem or the solution? Would a retreat to the countryside
be an alternative, in order to positively influence the climate?
That’s hard to answer. But it surely can’t be our objective to cram together as many
people in as small a space as possible. The perfect way of greening the city would
be to create meadows scattered with fruit trees: Just planting one tree next to another
doesn’t solve anything because this merely means that we have more heat in the
night, whereas less dense planting is ideal. And I could imagine the surrounding built
structure in the same way, some sort of halfway solution would certainly be optimal.
But so many factors are involved—just think of mobility—that there is no single conclusive
answer to the question.
This means that we’ll have to wait even longer for the climate-friendly city?
The models may tell us what would be ideal, but the challenge is always posed by other
limiting factors, which are also central to the subject. However, the question of the
climate-friendly city of the future—of how cities should generally look in order to optimise
their climatic impact—will continue to gain in importance.
About
Marc Olefs, born 1979 in Freiburg/Breisgau (Germany)
Studied meteorology in Innsbruck, awarded doctorate in 2009
2010–15 Research Assistant in the Climate Research Department, ZAMG Hohe Warte, Vienna
2015–18 Head of the Specialist Climate Impact Division, Climate Research Department,
ZAMG Hohe Warte, Vienna
Since 2018 Head of the Climate Research Department, ZAMG Hohe Warte, Vienna
Research focuses: Mountain climatology and meteorology, the measurement and modelling
of radiation and snow cover in the Alps, climatic warming in the Alps and globally, the associated
raising of public awareness.

DMAA Taiyuan Botanical Garden 204

DMAA Foshan Paradise Pavilion 205

DMAA Gasstrasse Hamburg 206

DMAA Gasstrasse Hamburg 207

DMAA Foshan Paradise Pavilion 208

Non Endless Space
Editorial Note
Besides its exemplary illustrations of the
notion of environmental architecture, this
publication also contains a number of articles
that have appeared over the course
of the past two years in the online magazine
“Questions and Architecture”,
which was created by DMAA and has investigated
in depth, to date, the areas of
“Biodiversity and Artificial Ecosystems,”
“Finite Resources” and “Architecture in the
Age of the Anthropocene”. This mix of subjects
has also informed the selection of the
projects documented in this book, which,
in combination with the various texts from
the magazine, offer a perspective on the
new challenges that face the construction
industry and that are reflected in the latest
discussions in the fields of the social and
cultural sciences. Against the background
of ambitious climate goals and current developments
on the energy market, one
particularly significant contribution to the
book is the Design Research Paper entitled
“Energy Transition”, in which DMAA joins
up with a team of relevant experts to investigate
the energy transition and to deliver
concrete project proposals on the basis
of five contextual scenarios.
The available material has been
shaped by the Paris-based graphic designers
Spassky Fischer into a work, whose
visual identity combines a strict, four-part
structure with the objective of presenting
the entire contents as raw material
for additional aspects of visual interpretation.
In this sense, the book is a bricolage—which
the reader is free to adapt at
will—of inspirational images, intense detail
and informed reflection that is presented
through the ‘lens’ of an office that is addressing
the challenges of our time in many
different ways.
I would like to take this opportunity to
thank all those who have been involved in
the creation of this book and who, in doing
so, have proven that it is still worthwhile to
explore new aspects of the medium of the
book and to put one’s own work up for public
discussion as an open process of epistemological
reckoning.
Edited by
Wolfgang Fiel
Delugan Meissl
Associated
Architects
Mittersteig 13/4
1040 Vienna
dmaa.at
Questions and
Architecture
hosted by DMAA
and dmaa.at
Concept:
Wolfgang Fiel and
DMAA
Acquisitions Editor:
David Marold,
Birkhäuser Verlag,
A—Vienna
Content and
Production Editor:
Bettina R. Algieri,
Birkhäuser Verlag,
A—Vienna
Translation
from German
into English
and proofreading:
Rupert
Hebblethwaite,
A—Vienna
Layout,
cover design and
typography:
Spassky Fischer,
F—Paris
Image editing:
Spassky Fischer,
F—Paris
Printing:
Musumeci S.p.a.,
I—Quart
Papers:
Magno Volume
Maxi Offset
Magno Gloss
Pirol B/G
Library of Congress
Control Number:
2022948109
ISBN
978-3-0356-2591-2
e-ISBN (PDF)
978-3-0356-2593-6
© 2023 Birkhäuser
Verlag GmbH,
Basel P.O. Box 44,
4009 Basel,
Switzerland
Part of Walter
de Gruyter GmbH,
Berlin/Boston
birkhauser.com
Bibliographic information published by the German National
Library. The German National Library lists this publication
in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data
are available on the Internet at http://dnb.dnb.de.
This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reser ved, whether
the whole or part of the material is concer ned, specifically
the rights of translation, reprinting, re-use of illustrations, recitation,
broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in other
ways, and storage in databases. For any kind of use, permission
of the copyright owner must be obtained.
All photos of Taiyuan Botanical Garden
© CreatAR.
All photos of Antonianum Meran
© Oskar Da Riz.
All photos on pages 85, 86, 112, 116, 123, 124, 127 & 132
© as indicated.
All other photos, plans and sketches
© Delugan Meissl Associated Architects.

Non Endless Space:
Architecture in the Age of Transformation
Ever since it was founded 30 years ago, Delugan Meissl
Associated Architects has devoted itself to the vision of fully
integrating nature, people, their surroundings and the built
environment into fluid, permanently evolving ecologies that are
rooted in a critical evaluation of the given circumstances
and programmatic guidelines. The resulting structures react
to the forces inherent to the specific location and translate
sensitive and observation-based information about the task
at hand into complex spatial propositions.
In addition to examples of DMAA’s way of working, this publication
also contains several contributions that appeared
in the online magazine “Questions and Architecture”, which
was launched by the office with the aim of informing their
work by investigating such areas as “Biodiversity and Artificial
Ecosystems”, “Finite Resources” and “Architecture in the
Age of the Anthropocene”.
The book is a mixture of visual inspiration, condensed detail
and informed reflection, all seen through the ‘lens’ of an
office that meets the challenges of our time with the informed
and curious intuition of environmental practitioners.
– Preface
59 Central Park Taopu Shanghai
59 Expo Cultural Park Greenhouse
Garden Shanghai
59 Taiyuan Botanical Garden
60 World Horticultural Exhibition Chengdu
61 Arena Wien
62 Atlantic Towers Erfurt East
62 Gasstrasse Hamburg
79 Intro: Life on Mars
Life on Mars
83 The Nature of Everything
88 Building for Plants
93 Long-Span Timber Gridshells
Biodiversity and Artificial Ecosystems
Finite Resources
97 Energy Transition, Design Research Paper
Architecture in the Age of the
Anthropocene
109 Call of the Wild
113 Plantopia
115 Animals. Humans and Their Nature
119 The Future of Farming
122 Urban Farming in Vienna
126 Weather Report
130 The Hive Explorer
132 Outro: A Box of Mealworms
147 Foshan Paradise Pavilion
147 Shanghai Valley
147 Quartier am Rotweg Stuttgart
148 Antonianum Meran
149 Althan Quartier Wien
150 Fürstenwald
150 Kellogg’s Bremen
– Imprint
ISBN 978-3-0356-2591-2
www.birkhauser.com