The Lobby

In September of 2010 I traveled to Israel to participate in the Bat-Yam Biennale of Landscape Urbanism. I was invited to be part of the '72 Hour Urban Action', the first real-time international rapid architecture competition. Ten teams made up of ten people per team had three days and three nights to plan and realize a design/build project. Each team received a randomly assigned mission to address a specific site and community needs within public space. Our team, The DasDing Hoffmanns, won 1st place in the competition with the project, The Lobby.

Our mission involved a redefined tower, altered from an office building into a home for elderly immigrants. The conversion created a void of usable public space for the residents. Our task was to provide the tower’s residents with high-quality, inviting public spaces. Our solution was a mix of interventions at various scales that addressed a range of needs on site. To the south side of the building, we established a multi-colored awning to provide much needed shade in a previously unused sitting space due to harsh sun throughout much of the day. On the front side of the building we transformed three existing benches by filling in gaps between them, to offer a larger “couch-bench” with more sitting room. A cold and sterile corner to the northwest was activated with a series of “lounge-chairs”, the inviting and stylized public furniture with flexibility as they can be attached and detached by hooking onto existing walls. The “chandelier” was constructed from recycled bottles, acted as a luminous center piece, and provided character while encouraging congregation in the evening with its form and light.

The DasDing Hoffmanns consisted of: Rusty Lamer, Lukasz Lendzinski, Aaron Schirrmann, Sascha Seidel, Alper Kazokoglu, David Baur, Mateusz Lendzinski, Julia Heuer, Onur Ozyurt, Ofra Rechter.

photo credit: Mor Arkadir