All Things Urban

GRAFT and Marianne Birthler announce a second round of Graft Travel Grants. 2018 marked the 28th anniversary of the fall of the inner German border wall and the point at which the Wall had been gone for exactly as long as it had existed. GRAFT and Marianne Birthler, the curators of the German Pavilion at the 16th Architecture Biennale in Venice, took this parallel as an opportunity to explore the topic of “UNBUILDING WALLS”. Following on from the exhibition and the issues it raised, the curators announced two Travel Grants with a value of 3000 € each. In 2020, GRAFT and Marianne Birthler will be awarding a second round of two travel grants to fund study or project trips that deal with the topic of climate change and its consequences for the built environment. CLIMATE CHANGE TRAVEL GRANTS Man-made climate change confronts us with a multitude of conflicts and dangers that challenge and question our way of life as individuals and in society. As architects, we bear particular responsibility for drastically reducing CO2 emissions in the construction industry, which currently account for 40 percent of all CO2 emissions. We need to rethink planning and construction practice in such a way that it no longer contributes to dangerously spiralling global warming and at the same time addresses new spatial requirements. In the awareness that this is a global problem, the travel grants aim to support projects that act across national borders to find solutions to phenomena caused by climate change. The GRAFT Travel Grant 2020 aims to support work that will deal with built, physical or even strategic interventions aimed at overcoming global warming or its consequences. These can be of a planning, artistic or political nature. Inspired by the exhibition UNBUILDING WALLS, such works can also deal with current debates on nations, protectionism and division, for example with regard to migration patterns arising from climate change, or with associated aspects of climate justice. Other potential funding topics include analyses of or responses to extreme weather events, rising sea levels, melting glaciers, the protection of flora and fauna, or material and energy innovations at different scales. These may have an urban planning, architectural, political or social focus. Research work conducted as part of such projects should have a transformative artistic or creative aspect, i.e. be more than merely documentary. These transformation processes can be presented in the form of models, designs, media installations, animations, photographic works or other similar formats. Applicants should specify the medium they intend to use as part of their project in the application. Reflecting the spirit of collaboration between the politician Marianne Birthler and GRAFT architecture office, the grant is aimed particularly at applicants who address not only the topic outlined above but also its means of implementation from an interdisciplinary perspective. Especially welcome are collaborative projects that consider their topic in a broader socio-political context and bring together different approaches, backgrounds and strategies to leverage their full potential. Preference will be given to projects that are themselves climate-conscious in their approach, use of materials and means of mobility. The funding provided by the grant should be used to cover travel costs arising in conjunction with research on the topic and with experiencing the subject of study in question, as well as for completing the work conducted and its presentation. The work that the grant will fund must be completed by December 2020. The results will be presented in January 2021. DATES AND DEADLINES – Announcement of the travel grant: December 2019 – Application deadline: 29 February 2020 – Selection committee meets to decide and announce the awarding of the grant: March 2020 – Submission of project work: December 2020

Eligible applicants are: – Bachelor, master’s or diploma students around the world, – Master’s and diploma graduates who have completed their studies within the last two years – Doctoral students Group applications are permissible providing all members of the group meet the conditions for participation. The grant funding of 3000 € is independent of the number of participants.

GRAFT was founded in 1998 in Los Angeles, California by Lars Krückeberg, Wolfram Putz, and Thomas Willemeit and operates internationally in the fields of urban development, architecture, and design. The hybrid office with further locations in Berlin and Beijing is characterized by its innovative and interdisciplinary design method and its futuristic design language. GRAFT was conceived as a ‘Label’ for Architecture, Urban Planning, Design, Music and the “pursuit of happiness”. Since the firm was established, it has been commissioned to design and manage a wide range of projects in multiple disciplines and locations. With the core of the firm’s enterprises gravitating around the field of architecture and the built environment, GRAFT has always maintained an interest in crossing the boundaries between disciplines and “grafting” the creative potentials and methodologies of different realities. This is reflected in the firm’s expansion into the fields of exhibition design and product design, art installations, academic projects and “events” as well as in the variety of project locations in Germany, China, UAE, Russia, Georgia, in the U.S. and Mexico, to name a few. Our collective professional experience encompasses a wide array of building types including Fine Arts, Educational, Institutional, Commercial and Residential facilities. The firm has won numerous international awards. With a staff of talented architectural professionals and administrators, GRAFT has the resources and technology necessary to execute a project from programming to design and through construction, including construction documents, construction administration, and governmental agency review phases. GRAFT has rigorously undertaken an increasing role in programming, master-planning and urban design.

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