Kooperative Standards

Cooperative standards refer to design, programmatic, and spatial elements that are constituted from experiential knowledge and shared responsibility. As responses to specific problems and needs, they deviate from generalizing rules and norms, allowing for the realization of special qualities and relationships within their respective environments. A concrete ceiling that permits bar operations while construction continues above, scaffolding and winter gardens, balconies and walkways that expand living spaces and intertwine with the neighborhood, a yard where living and working can occur in ways that are typically prohibited. Issues 1-7 explore the theme of cooperative standards at various levels of planning and design. The projects gathered here from Assemble, Inken Baller, common room, Jesko Fezer, Gabu Heindl, Lacaton & Vassal, and NL Architects demonstrate that special spatial qualities, functions, and programs, as well as beauty and luxury, can primarily be realized when the residents are also the actors—whether in co-determined planning or in self-responsible daily use. The editors Marieke Behne, Christoph Heinemann, and Justus Griesenberg have developed the series Cooperative Standards as part of their work in the field of architecture and urban planning, where they have particularly focused on situational and relational dispositions in urban action spaces.