Constanze Kummer studied architecture and urban planning at the University of Stuttgart and the University of Massachusetts Amherst. After graduation, she worked in various architectural offices in Switzerland on new construction and remodeling projects in the field of residential construction. During this time she completed a Master of Advanced Studies in History and Theory of Architecture at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich. For her thesis at ETH Zurich, she investigated urban development strategies in Belfast after the end of the Northern Ireland conflict. Since October 2020, Constanze Kummer has been a research associate and doctoral candidate at the University of Kassel in the department of history and theory of architecture.     

Constanze Kummer's research focuses on modernist architecture and urbanism. The focus is on how political, economic, social and cultural-historical contexts are reflected and represented in the built environment. She is particularly interested in industrial housing and furniture construction in the GDR. She will devote more time to this topic in her dissertation.

Kummer, Constanze, Die Stadt als Handlung. Kommunales Praktikum und Planungscamp, in: Kegler, Harald, Constanze Kummer, Benjamin Eckel and Wiebke Reinert (ed.), Stadtwende Halle, Kassel 2022.

Eckel, Benjamin, und Constanze Kummer, Die Wende in der Stadt. Bürgerschaftliches Engagement und stadtplanerische Prozesse in Halberstadt und Meißen, in: Breßler, Jana, Harald Engler, Harald Kegler, Constanze Kummer, Detlef Kurth, Jannik Noeske, Wiebke Reinert and Max Welch Guerra (ed.), Stadtwende. Bürgerengagement und Altstadterneuerung in der DDR und Ostdeutschland, Berlin 2022, S. 224–234.

Collaboration in the research project on Swiss women architects as part of the MAS program at ETH Zurich: www.schweizerarchitektinnen.ch/ (Homepage expected to be available from fall 2022)

"Die Platte als Chamäleon? Variable Plattenbauten im innerstädtischen Kontext in den 1980er Jahren", 17. Werkstattgespräch IRS Erkner (19.05.-20.05.2022), in collaboration with Benjamin Eckel

Variable Standardization

Participative processes in prefabricated housing construction in the GDR

Dissertation Constanze Kummer

Prefabricated housing construction in the GDR seems to be characterized by its rigid

modular system, yet references to variable floor plan design in prefabricated housing can be found in the literature of GDR planners. This paradox between the received idea of a standardized, inflexible building system and the possibility of individual design choices will be discussed in the dissertation. The aim is to rethink the concepts of 'standardization', 'variability', 'individuality' and 'participation' in the industrial housing of the GDR. In doing so, it is argued that planning processes are by no means exclusively based on mechanized top-down approaches, but on participatory processes that place the everyday lives of residents at the center of the architectural solution.

A central example and starting point of the dissertation is the experiment called 'Variables Wohnen'. It not only required new structural, architectural and interior design solutions, but also revealed unusual planning strategies within the GDR. Various experts, such as architects, furniture designers, sociologists, and medical professionals, as well as future residents, were selected to develop more flexible and diverse architectural housing solutions. This approach contrasts with the typical top-down decision-making within the GDR and is replaced by participatory planning processes.

PhD Candidate
Fachgebiet Geschichte und Theorie der Architektur

Education

2017 – 2020 Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH Zurich), studies: History and Theory of Architecture (GTA), degree: Master of Advanced Studies (MAS ETH GTA) 

2008 – 2014 University of Stuttgart, studies: Architecture and Urban Planning, degree: Diplom-Ingenieurin (Dipl.-Ing.) 

2012 – 2013 University of Massachusetts Amherst, studies: Architecture + Design Graduate Program

Employment

10/2020 - 10/2023 University of Kassel, Department of History and Theory of Architecture, task: research assistant and PhD candidate. Also research assistant in the project „Second World, Second Sex“ and research assistant in the project „Stadtwende“ (collaboration of University of Kassel, University of Weimar, TU Kaiserslautern and IRS Erkner)

08/2015 - 06/2020 Architecture offices in Switzerland