ARCH+ Salon: Urban Fungus – Focus on the future of construction!

ARCH+ Salon: Urban Fungus – Focus on the future of construction!

The ARCH+ Salon with the title “Urban Fungus” will take place in Berlin on March 14, 2025. The event, moderated by Verena von Beckerath, professor of design and housing construction at the Bauhaus University Weimar, and Markus Krieger, editor of ARCH+, promises a lively discussion about innovative architectural concepts. These are presented by the architects Fuminori Nousaku and Mio Tsuneyama, and supplemented by a video work by the German-Japanese architectural firm Studio GROSS. This project was created as part of the “Make Do With Now” exhibition at the Swiss Architecture Museum S AM.

The event is already fully booked. Admission begins one hour before the start at 7 p.m., in the ARCH+ Space, Friedrichstraße 23a, 10969 Berlin. The language of the event is English and it aims to discuss ideas that combine architecture and ecological concepts. This connection between urban spaces and ecological systems no longer only concerns architects, but also affects social and cultural dimensions.

Exhibition in Tokyo and the connection to architecture

Parallel to the discussion, the exhibition “URBAN FUNGUS――Architecture is a Complex Mesh” will take place in Tokyo, which is curated by Nousaku and Tsuneyama. This runs from January 18, 2024 to March 24, 2024 at TOTO GALLERY·MA. It deals with the complex relationships between architecture, cities and ecosystems. This includes the “Holes in the House” project, an architectural renovation aimed at promoting urban ecosystems.

The exhibition also features experiments with earthy environments in urban spaces and cooking methods that utilize sunlight. Models and documents of other architectural projects that focus on the relationship between space and living individuals are also presented. These initiatives illustrate the growth process in architecture, which has been compared to the natural growth of fungi.

Sustainability as a key issue

The discourse surrounding the events is heavily influenced by the need to establish sustainable building practices. Sustainable building is based on the three pillars of sustainability: ecology, economy and socio-cultural. A central goal is to promote environmental protection and to make housing both attractive and affordable for future generations. Aspects such as location, choice of materials and energy consumption play a crucial role. Angel Architects emphasize the importance of renewable resources and the use of recyclable materials in architecture.

The challenges of sustainable urban development are diverse. There are often no easy solutions to the choice of materials, financing and sometimes contradictory social needs. Switching to environmentally friendly materials such as wood and clay is one of the most urgent tasks to minimize the negative impact of unsustainable materials. Sustainable practices are necessary not only to ensure environmental protection, but also to promote the health of residents and improve the quality of living.

With an awareness of these issues, both the presentations in Berlin and the exhibition in Tokyo work towards the vision of architecture that is in harmony with the natural environment. While the “Urban Fungus” event in Berlin opens up new perspectives, the work of Nousaku and Tsuneyama in Tokyo shows how these concepts can be put into practice.