Office ParkScheerbarth, selected as one of ArchDaily's 2024 Best New Practices, was founded in Berlin in 2019 by principals Moojin Park and Benjamin Scheerbarth. Together, they create a synthesis between architecture, urban planning, and social science, drawings on cultural and educational contexts from Korea, the US, and Germany. Their work creates spaces that welcome versatility, challenges, and growth. The duo embodies a fusion of cultures, nationalities, and diverse disciplines, approaching each project from multiple perspectives and emphasizing adaptability, respect for ownership, and the continuous pursuit of knowledge and innovation. Challenging norms and regulations of the built environment, Moojin Park and Benjamin Scheerbarth share a commitment to pushing and exploring design boundaries. They met during their Master's studies in the US, where their shared vision took shape and marked the beginning of their journey together.
In an interview with ArchDaily, Office ParkScheerbarth shares insights into their journey from individual roles in architecture and urban planning to founding their practice in Berlin, prompted by an invitation to collaborate on Haus Eins, an innovative timber high-rise project. They discuss their approach to balancing service and authorship in client work, often becoming their own clients to foster unique projects, like the Tall Timber Index and The Blue Table Installation.
The conversation delves into their commitment to engaging tenants to understand a building's "afterlife", celebrating user-driven transformations, and exploring intuitive design as a means to challenge conventional norms. Additionally, they reflect on their careful selection of materials, balancing ecological impact, functionality, and practicality, particularly for clients in education, subculture, and disaster relief, where budget and environmental responsibility intersect. Read on to discover the principles and insights that guide Office ParkScheerbarth's practice.
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How Can Architecture be Designed to Reflect Human Behavior?ArchDaily (Hadir Al Koshta): Which experiences and situations have led you to open your practice in Berlin and how do you approach your work, considering that you bring a unique perspective and challenge the conventional judgment-based methods often taught in architectural education?
Office ParkSheerbarth: Before opening our office, we both held different professions within the built environment—architecture and urban planning—and we'd regularly find ourselves debating the outcomes and effects of projects around us. These reflections were purely personal until an unexpected proposal from the cultural cooperative behind Holzmarkt in Berlin to work on an ambitious timber high-rise, later called Haus Eins. The project required our complimentary backgrounds and the establishment of an office. So, starting out wasn't premeditated, especially not the timing. In retrospect, we're glad we got pushed into cold water, it became slightly warmer over time.
(HK): How do you see your role as an architect and designer in your projects? You've spoken about often becoming your own clients, which allows you to bring extra value to the table. How has this process influenced the way you approach client-based work?
(OPS): For us, balancing "service" with "authorship" is key in client-based work. These ideas feel contradictory at times, yet they align in certain moments or layers in a project. To keep things interesting, we also follow tangents into research, art, or collaboration. Explorations like the Tall Timber Index and The Blue Table installation emerged from client work but became distinct projects, ultimately looping back to inform the original context and enrich our client relationships.
(HK): You've emphasized the importance of including tenants and users in understanding a building's afterlife and that architectural projects don't exist in a vacuum. How have you integrated this approach into your work, and what insights have you gained from observing how spaces are used in reality?
(OPS): A building devoid of users and passers-by is like a stage without actors and audience, it remains only an intention. In our limited experience, we've found that preserving opening-day perfection is futile. Instead, we look forward to documenting and celebrating how a building is appropriated and lived in over time. With Haus 2+, a small timber extension featuring six units for local creatives, each tenant has personalized their space to such an extent, that it feels like stepping into different worlds behind each door. Fortunately, their adaptions reflect connection and identification with the space.
(HK): In a context that often demands rational tools and arguments, you've taken a different route by focusing on intuitive design. How do you define this intuitive approach, and how do you bring a non-rational value into spaces, for example, in the Red House project?
(OPS): We don't see intuition as opposed to rationality—but as focusing on different cues and contexts. We actively try to innovate over restrictive forces, especially when a beaten path seems the less rational choice, e.g. due to outdated norms. In the case of Haus 2+ (the red house), our years immersed in the community fabric led to a proposal that might seem unconventional on sight but in fact, feels deeply contextual for both client and tenants.
(HK): How do you consciously select materials that adapt to the specific conditions of a project? How do these choices reflect the environmental and contextual needs of your designs, and how do they shape the identity of the building?
(OPS): The material choice is a balancing act not only between a material's ecological footprint, its functional qualities, and aesthetic considerations but also its availability within budgetary constraints. Many of our clients occupy non-luxury fields from subculture and education to disaster relief. Here, the challenge lies less in choosing than finding the materials that perform along all these dimensions.
