Baugruppe Brno! - invitation to a lecture and discussion

"In your neighborhood, there is a vacant plot among the apartment buildings. You think that a house could be built on it, where you could have an apartment according to your ideas. It’s your city, so you can imprint something of your own on its shape, arrange it according to yourself. You gather with people like you, and instead of each of you searching for your own apartment, you create a BAUGRUPPE..."

Baugruppe Brno! Let's invest together – let's build together – let's live together

How to become the developer of your own housing in the city?!


4AM/Forum for Architecture and Media and BAUGRUPPE is super! are organizing, in collaboration with IPR Prague and the magazine ERA21, the BAUGRUPPE Day in Brno.

On Thursday, May 7th, from 12 PM all day in the cultural space PRAHA / Forum for Architecture and Media, Husova 18, Brno, it will be possible to watch video documentation, architectural projects, literature, and other resources about the so-called BAUGRUPPE. A part of the event will also be the launch of the new issue of the magazine ERA21 #02/2015 TOGETHER.


At 7 PM, the day Baugruppe will be concluded with a lecture by the organizers of the BAUGRUPPE is super! exhibition, which took place in February and March 2015 at the Kvalitář Gallery in Prague: Marek Kopeć and Helena Doudová (curators of the exhibition) and Vlado Fialka and Žofie Raimannová (IPR Prague). In the following discussion, journalist Karolína Vránková and Heinz Feldman (initiator of the WOHNPROJEKT WIEN project), whose texts are part of the new issue of ERA21, will speak.

BAUGRUPPE (from German "bauen" – to build, "Gruppe" – group) refers to a way of building and living that comes from the individual initiative of mini-builders and architects. In the process of direct agreement between the architect and the group, a residential building typically emerges, tailored to the individual demands of the users and their common ideas about shared space and functions of the house.

Projects of Baugruppe differ from ordinary houses – primarily in the dialogue between the architect and the client (the group of mini-builders) during the design process. Each project is unique and reflects the dynamics and demands of the group. The initiators are either an architect or a group of builders – future users of the house, who acquire the building plot. An open discussion between the architect and the Baugruppe about the house design follows in shared meetings. After achieving consensus, the residential building is constructed. Members of Baugruppe are owners of individually designed apartments. The projects are characterized by a new form of neighborhood, shared spaces such as clubrooms or common terraces, and a number of sustainable solutions. Projects of Baugruppe do not always have to be new builds; conversions and renovations of existing buildings are also common.

“Utilizing building plots that lie idle will support the formation of a compact and efficient city, which corresponds to the current goals of urban planning” says architect Vladimír Fialka from the Institute of Planning and Development of the capital city of Prague. According to him, members of the Baugruppe are often engaged individuals with an interest in their surroundings, which in turn creates a high quality of neighborhood and a stable social environment.

The BAUGRUPPE Day will be followed by a workshop for students from the Faculty of Arts and Architecture at the Technical University of Liberec, led by architects Radek Suchánek and Petr Janoš, taking place from May 7-12 at the Pragovka Palace of the Moravian Gallery in Brno.

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