Adaptive Reuse
Furniture Design
Student accomodation
Workshop
Berlin
2026
This workshop project is a proposal for converting a vacant building in the TU Berlin campus into student accommodation. The result is a built prototype and workflow that offers university administration a scalable plan. Derelict classrooms are mapped and adapted for various student dorm typologies.
Building on foundational work done by students at TU Berlin, the process of this adaptive reuse project began from understanding the legal framework of modifying the current building, mapping spaces, testing models of co-ownership, and finally creating and exhibiting scale prototypes.
For one of the selected classrooms, the design proposed a double-bedroom dorm centered on an evolving workbench. A surface that snakes around the room, adapting in height -- creating a work bench that responds to the daily rhythms of the students. Starting from the bed, it becomes a window-side bench, growing into a workbench, a table, a dresser, a shelving system, a bench, and finally returning to the bed. Modular systems of wood furniture were tailored to the existing infrastructure of the classroom: creating benches that hide and fit into the protruding heating and electricity elements.
