Counter Narrative

In November 2024, we came together in direct opposition to the Tempelhofer Feld Idea Competition, a procedure designed to weaken the Tempelhofer-Feld-Gesetz by disguising construction as participation.

Faced with a process that invited architects and citizens to legitimise development on a legally protected field, we chose a different strategy: we entered the competition to refuse it. 

We transformed a space intended for design proposals into a space for democratic debate.

We developed and distributed a competition-compliant starter kit, which enabled architects to submit legally valid projects that said only one thing: no construction. Each submission was a formal, professional rejection, defending the law as Berliners voted for it in the 2014 referendum.

What began as an attempt to normalise development was forced to acknowledge resistance. The procedure culminated in the final exhibition in September 2025, where ‘no construction’ was publicly displayed in direct contradiction to the Senate’s original imperative to develop Tempelhofer Feld.