“Living Room”for Refugees, Augsburg
Conversion of a bus garage into a cafe. The impetus for the project was the opening of a collective housing facility for refugees in the vicinity.
Status | Type of residents |
Number of residents | Building method |
Building (Detail) | Country |
Architect | Commissioned by |
Construction firm |
Since April 2012 the “Tür-an-Tür” (Door-to-Door) Society (founded 1992) has been operating the Centre for Intercultural Counselling (zib) in the former Augsburg tram depot, today protected as an industrial monument. Here refugees, asylum seekers and immigrants will find help, language courses and advice in their search for a job and accommodation. The recently opened café now provides a “living room” for informal meetings.
For almost a decade Günther Prechter, architect in Bregenz, and Thomas Körner-Wilsdorf, art teacher and builder-in-charge at Augsburg’s Holbein-Gymnasium, have been jointly practising “building as self-help”. With Café Tür-an-Tür a participative understanding of architecture and daily demand for robust integration models come together. An old bus garage in the workshop wing of the zib site was converted to the new café. The threatening conflict with neighbours prior to the opening of collective accommodation for asylum seekers in the neighbourhood provided an incentive to use the conversion as an opportunity for participation, integration and identification. The competence pool of Tür-an-Tür activists was closely integrated into the planning and the needs and wishes of neighbours were identified in neighbourhood workshops. Every available hand was used in the building process: schoolchildren, students, neighbours and asylum seekers rubbed shoulders with tradesmen. The roof beams and walls were freed from decades of workshop dust; the underside of the roof was thermally insulated and acoustically optimised with wood wool panels; rough-sawn pine planks were laid; larch panels were screwed together to form benches; the surfaces of custom-made maple wood tops were sanded; the paint on the counter front was polished to a shine and patchworks sewn – much of this by amateurs with expert guidance.
The longer time frame, low-tech solutions in the detailed planning, presence of the architects, specialists and honorary helpers at the building site all contributed to success. The participatory process promoted social added value: cross-milieu friendships arose. These used the jointly created space – hosted by Tür-an-Tür – as a demand-oriented creative workshop and open meeting platform.
Text: Kirsten Klingbeil
from: Stadtbauwelt 48.2015
