Constructlab

Constructlab is a transnational design-build network joining architectural thinking to the act of construction, initiated in 2012 by architect and carpenter Alexander Römer out of the former EXYZT collective. Its members are architects but also sociologists, urban planners, graphic designers, curators and educators, following a project from drawing board to site rather than splitting design from building.

Around 120 members gather in the network, anchored by associations in Berlin, Belgium, France and Switzerland. Projects run from Mont Réel, a collectively raised mountain for the Université de Montréal campus, to Spree Space at Berlin’s Spreepark and Klimapunkt in Zürich. The book Convivial Ground states the method: sites as learning places, spaces of togetherness made with residents rather than for them.