MA Design Studio, SOSE 26: Bogensee Ecologies - Light Urbanism
Authors: Gero Ant, Maurice App, Sophie Howard, and Thuy Linh Le.
This project argues that the contemporary housing crisis and the ecological crisis are not separate phenomena but two manifestations of the same underlying process: the privatization and commodification
of land. Focusing on Berlin and Brandenburg, it examines how neoliberal urbanization has simultaneously
reduced access to affordable housing and transformed nature into an increasingly commercialized resource. Rather than asking where housing can be built, the project asks a broader question: how can territory be inhabited differently? The research develops the concept of Light Urbanism as an alternative model of inhabitation based on reversibility, seasonality, collective stewardship, and minimal environmental impact. Existing typologies local to Berlin-Brandenburg, namely Kleingärten, Wochenendhäuse, Camping, Besetzte Gärten, and Hausboote, were analyzed as subversive typologies that already challenge the conventional opposition between urban density and suburban expansion. Interviews with inhabitants, macro territorial mappings, and micro typological analyses reveal these practices as interconnected, situated ecologies of care and temporal inhabitation rather than isolated exceptions. Building on this research, the project shifts from analysis to speculation through the design of a new legal and spatial framework. It proposes the introduction of a new zoning category within the Baunutzungsverordnung (BauNVO) identified SO Leichtbesiedlung and a speculative Bundesleichtbesiedlungsgesetz (BLeiBesG), enabling collectively governed, non-profit, lightweight settlements that prioritize ecological restoration, public access, and protection from speculation. These legal instruments were then tested through two, meso-scale territorial analyses and design proposals, one in Berlin and one Brandenburg, illustrating how cyclical patterns of inhabitation can operate across metropolitan and rural territories. Rather than presenting a finished masterplan, this proposal reframes planning law as a design medium. It proposes inhabitation as an adaptive, collective, and
ecological practice, offering an alternative vision of urbanization that moves beyond the binary of densification and sprawl.