AFEA _ Association for Ecological Architecture _ Contact us to collaborate _ AFEA  Association for Ecological Architecture _ Contact us to collaborate _ AFEA  Association for Ecological Architecture _ Contact us to collaborate _
1. InitiativeWhere does transformation begin? Often with a local spark—a person, a place, a moment of tension or possibility. AFEA initiates and supports processes that question the status quo, create alliances, and set change in motion.



2. ConceptIdeas are fragile—but they’re also where everything begins. In this field, AFEA develops spatial strategies, narratives, and formats that translate complex realities into coherent, place-based concepts. We prototype futures, and invite others to shape them with us.



3. Construction We see building as more than the final step—it’s part of a larger choreography. AFEA supports implementation processes that are reversible, local, and circular. From material cycles to social ones, we think construction anew.



4. ResearchOur work is driven by curiosity. We ask: What can rural spaces teach us? What rituals, methods, and models are worth reimagining? AFEA’s research is open-ended, transdisciplinary, and always in dialogue with practice.



5. Consulting





How can ecological, economic, and social goals align without compromise? We offer strategic guidance and technical expertise—from life cycle assessments to funding applications—always tailored to the context, and grounded in long-term thinking.
  










                       

                                                                                

Concept 2.1
  • Seasonal living
  • 2018-
  • Prototype: Jahreszeitenhaus, Werder (Havel)

The Jahreszeitenhaus introduces an innovative approach to sustainable living, where the house adapts to the changing seasons. In winter, the residents retreat to the garden floor, a well-insulated space that remains cozy and efficient. During the summer, the living area expands, with the rooftop pavilion becoming an integral part of the home. Folding doors allow the pavilion to open completely in warmer months, while a horizontal sliding window separates it from the garden level during winter. This seasonal approach conserves energy and reduces costs by condensing the home's footprint in colder months.



Concept 2.2
  • Single family homes in an existing prefabricated building
  • 2022-
  • Prototype: Einfamilienhaus, Stendal

By reinterpreting the typology of the single-family home within the structural frame of existing prefabricated buildings, this concept opens new possibilities for post-growth living. Instead of building anew, spatial generosity, individuality, and privacy are achieved through subtraction, adaptation, and the intelligent reuse of existing volumes. The result is a hybrid model—somewhere between the intimacy of a house and the efficiency of collective infrastructure.
Concept 2.3
  • Terrace house structure (buttresses) as stabilisation of dilapidates houses
  • 2025-
  • Prototype: Grüne Brauerei, Stendal

This concept reimagines residential development as an active force in structural preservation. By adding terraced housing units along existing buttresses or façades, new architectural mass is strategically deployed to stabilize decaying structures—much like the principles found in Gothic architecture, where added weight enhances lateral support. These terraces serve not only as desirable, sunlit living spaces, but also as integral elements of a structural system, distributing forces and anchoring vulnerable walls. Through this dual function—habitation and reinforcement—the approach turns the urgency of decay into a driver for architectural invention and densified rural living.
Concept 2.4
    Multiplying Ground: Toward Vertical Topographies
  • 2021-
  • Prototype: Grüner Berg, Basel

Ground is no longer the lowest layer, but a principle extended into the vertical. Through stacked and programmatically diverse layers, new “landscapes” emerge—usable open spaces, gardens, collective places—that multiply the ground. Architecture becomes a vertical topography, reconfiguring the relationship between density, openness, and nature. Buildings evolve into spatial ecosystems with atmospheric and social depth.
Concept 2.5
    Spaces Without Program
    2020-
    Prototype: Speicher, Werben (Elbe)

Architecture often defines spaces through predetermined functions – bedroom, living room, office, or studio. This concept proposes a different approach: a generic spatial framework composed of equally sized rooms without assigned program. Rather than prescribing use, architecture provides a stable spatial order in which different activities can emerge, coexist, and evolve over time.

Within such a system, spaces can be combined, shared, or reconfigured according to changing needs. Living, working, communal activities, or cultural uses can occupy the same architectural structure without requiring a fixed typology. The result is an adaptable spatial infrastructure that allows buildings to support changing forms of life and collective organisation over time.
Concept 2.6
    Open Framework
  • 2020-
    Prototype: Scheune, Werben (Elbe)
Instead of transforming existing buildings into fixed programs, the concept begins with a climatic logic. The structure is organised as a sequence of zones: one half is compact, insulated and fully heated, while the other remains unheated, operating as a winter garden and transitional space. Living area is therefore not constant but seasonal — reduced in winter to the protected core, and expanded in summer into the full depth of the building.

This gradient between inside and outside lowers energy demand while introducing spatial variation, light, and changing atmospheres over the year. Temperature becomes an organising principle, not a constraint.

Within this framework, architecture is understood as an open system rather than a finished product. Large, generous structures remain adaptable — spaces that can be divided, extended and reconfigured over time.

Uses such as living, working or gathering are not predefined but emerge through occupation and collective organisation. The building becomes a spatial infrastructure: a resilient structure that supports different ways of inhabiting, rather than prescribing them.
Contact

AFEA Association For Ecological Architecture

Gotzkowskystraße 33
10555 Berlin

Kirchplatz 6
39615 Werben (Elbe)

mail@afea.site
@afea.site
+49 157 50971179

Impressum
Current Team

Jurek Brüggen
Jalma Fiolka 
Hannes Herbst
Patrick Holzer
Mirko Kubein
Cintia Macuka 
Aimée Michelfelder 
Caterina Ricci 
Hannah Titz