Marvin Bratke
Marvin Bratke is a German architect and entrepreneur. He is managing partner at the architecture and design studio Beta Realties (www.betarealities.com) .
At his studio Marvin works on participatory methods to create inclusive, unconventional and transformative spaces through predictive planning. Beta Realities collaboratively works on new ways of social inclusion, as well as participatory approaches to co-design, both virtual and physical. The studio’s aim is the greater democratization of technology for architecture and design with a strong focus on positive social and ecological footprints.
Marvin’s work fuses emerging technologies, spatial innovation, future mobility and computational design into one holistic design approach. Urban Beta’s research is backed by the Federal Government of Germany, covered by the “Zukun Bau” (Future Construction) program: While the research project BetaHood became a model project for the “New European Bauhaus” initiative, the BetaPort building technology is on display at various conferences and events, including the GreenTech Festival and ExpoReal.
Marvin is actively engaged in the profession’s discourse, teaching at various universities, including the TU Graz, UCL The Bartlett and the AA Visiting School program. He held visiting professorships at Muthesius Academy of Arts in Kiel and UISEK in Quito. As an invited speaker, he frequently lectures on spatial strategies, circular building, architectural innovation and the studio’s research at renowned universities. This includes lectures at GreenTech Festival, Ars Electronica, CD Next and DETAIL Congress for Transformation.
Marvin received his diploma architecture top of the semester at the Technical University Munich (TUM) and the NTU in Singapore. His award-winning work is widely published and frequently exhibited, i.e. at the Architecture Biennale Venice, Experimental Architecture Biennale Prague, Munich Design Week and Forward Festival. He is an invited expert and consultant to various universities, including University of Innsbruck, TU Del and UCL The Bartlett.
Favourite Quote
Form follows fiction
Book/Author suggestion
More From Less – The surprising story of how we learned to prosper using fewer resources – and what happens next – Andrew McAffee
The book offers a counter-narrative to pessimistic views about the future, suggesting a path toward prosperity that is not necessarily resource-intensive. For architecture and the construction industry this is important since this industry is the largest contributor of CO2 and waste material.
Abstract
Beta Realities’ architecture deals with social justice including co-creation processes, platforms and circular economy.Nowadays, architects plan the life cycle of a building over a period of several years or even decades and must make assumptions about technological progress, future needs of the users, changing socioeconomic trends, possible shifts in political and legislative frameworks and climatic change. It is a difficult task that requires room for spontaneity in the planning process and flexibility in subsequent use. No building is planned for the present, every building for the future. The lecture examines architecture at the beginning of an adaptive ecology of construction.
Today, the speed of knowledge dissemination and ever more rapid changes in social dynamics are giving rise to a programmatic need for a more flexible approach to building. Architecture that can respond to rise of automation an on-demand society. The talk will examine architecture as an agile and flexible construct – not just in terms of usability and adaptability of the finished building but also in terms of the process by which it comes about and in the management of the planning and construction process.
The talk will examine the collaborative design approach at the companies as well as our applied research in partnerships with universities, where technology acts as a accelerator for systematic social and ecological change. It will investigate how spatial innovation can enable greater democratization of the building industry and dive into architecture as a space on-demand solution, that is scalable and can grow and change with its users.