Seminar 1: “More than Human” – Building an Outdoor Office
Teaching Staff: Hendrik Weiner
Hendrik Weiner researches urban co-design and transformation processes. To this end, he develops concepts and projects for collaborative and spatial urban development, as well as organizing interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary work and learning settings. These settings combine practice and theory and bring together children, young people, students, citizens, and their environment, as well as universities and cities.
He has taught in the fields of design, architecture, urban design, cultural engineering, public governance, and urban development at various universities in Germany and abroad. Currently, he teaches at Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg and works at Brandenburg University of Technology Cottbus-Senftenberg. In Magdeburg and Cottbus, he has initiated student-run living labs in the inner city, creating new spaces for encounters and project work.
He also works independently. Through his agency, raumdialog, he develops exhibition designs, co-designs, urban development concepts, and corporate designs as communication in space. As part of the OUTRA — Objects of Urban Transformation team, he designs and builds urban furniture and innovative public spaces that transform existing streetscapes and prepare them for the future, preferably through collaborative construction workshops.
Seminar Description
“More than Human” - We are building an outdoor office at Science Harbor
What about working in the fresh air alongside bees, lettuce, titmice, and hedgehogs? "More than Human" — workplaces that inspire, refresh, and provide a quiet spot for new ideas!
In this design-build workshop, we will construct an outdoor office at Science Harbour. To achieve this, we will convert existing wooden structures and incorporate features that facilitate outdoor working. The workshop combines theory with practice. We work hands-on. We use tools such as cordless screwdrivers and saws, all the while practicing networked thinking. Once completed, the office will be available to anyone interested in leaving their standard office space behind, and it will also represent a new synthesis between the working world and urban nature.
This workshop invites you to rethink working outdoors as a free-thinking space alongside our non-human neighbors, such as bees, titmice and hedgehogs. What are the needs of each species and how can they complement and inspire each other? Our focus is on the concept of 'more-than-human' working, where we recognize nature as not just a backdrop, but a collaborator in our creative and productive activities. We will create spaces that can be utilized by both humans and other species. We will explore what workplaces that are inviting for animals and plants might look like — places where humans and nature are in harmony. Together, we are designing an inspiring workplace in the city that promotes mindfulness, ecological sensitivity and new forms of collaboration.
Whether used as a retreat for quiet reflection or as an open space for collaborative work, our outdoor office is intended to provide a space for rethinking work in a sustainable, mindful and environmentally connected way.
