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Nina Vollbracht

Architect
Berlin

«I am convinced that we can exert great influence on design through democratic means.»

Please, introduce yourself…

Hi! I am a young architect based in Berlin. Together with other people I worked on architectural projects und art installations. However, my greatest interest is in the subject of how politics and society influence architecture and urban planning and vice versa. I am convinced that we can exert great influence on design through democratic means. Good ideas and future-oriented designs often come to nothing if the political environment is based on a conservative image of society.

Nina Vollbracht

How did you find your way into the field of architecture?

As a child I first became aware of the effect of architecture when my father gave me an architecture magazine. I think what fascinated me most about the pictures was that architects have the opportunity to shape their environment for themselves and others.

What comes to your mind, when you think about your diploma project?

Masterthesis

For my Master thesis, I researched about domestic violence in various women’s shelters. As a result of my research, I wrote a manifesto for self-determined living in women’s shelters and implemented it in a design. For me, women’s shelter are more of a feminist practice than a social institution. The houses enable these women to lead an independent, self-determined life and encourage them to try out new forms of living.

What does your desk/working space look like?

Working Table / Home Office

Name your favorite …

Book: Jane Jacobs - The Death and Life of Great American Cities
This book changed my thinking about the city like no other. Even though one should be very careful about how to interpret Jane Jacob’s credo against the modernist city planning.

Person: Lux Guyer, first independent woman-architect in Switzerland, the letters she wrote to her sisters encouraging woman to not hide their will to design and participate behind others.

Building: Sarah Wigglesworth - 9/10 Orchard Street, London
In her text Ordinariness and Perfection she speaks about how architectural representation discriminates mostly women. This house she built for herself to live and to work in, highlights her thesis.

Movie: Chantal Akerman - Jeanne Dielmann, 23, quai du commerce 1080 from 1975. The movie shows what it meant for a housewife in the 1970s to spend all her time at home – in a poorly designed flat.

What needs to change in the field of architecture according to you? How do you imagine the future?

Most architects, professors and students I know have little or no experience of discrimination based on their ethnic or social origin or their sexual orientation. If we continue to claim to design spaces for “all”, everyone should have access to architectural education.

How do you perceive yourself as a woman in architecture?

There are too few role models for female students and young architects. But what annoys me most is that it is hardly possible to evaluate the work of women architects because there are so few. That is why we have to work to ensure that more women occupy important positions and that the architecture discourse becomes much more diverse overall.

If there were one skill you could recommend to a young architect to study in depth at architecture school: what would it be and why?

Engage in political discussions!

Project 1

House for one Family

*under construction

The clients asked me to plan the transformation of the agricultural ensemble into a residential building. In addition to spacious living spaces for the young family, a small physiotherapy practice should be implemented for the client. Their connection with the rural surrounding resulted in a careful handling of the building fabric and a resource-saving and material-friendly construction.

Project 2

Facade for an Office Building

*under construction – in collaboration with Yanik Wagner

We were commissioned by the client to work out an alternative facade design to the existing proposal. The office building in the back courtyard has a representative character thanks to the elegant window proportions and the wealth of details in the facade. While the standing window formats react to the verticality of the backyard, the ribbon windows on the garden facade underline the horizontality of the extensive meadow landscape.