STRATEGY WORKSHOP FOR AWO BRANDENBURG
At the workshop on 26 November 2025, which was conducted by the COQUI MALACHOWSKA COQUI team together with Lutz Reich, the climate adaptation representative at AWO Potsdam, strategies were developed together with the managers of the various AWO facilities with the aim of better adapting the various outdoor facilities to heat, drought and heavy rainfall. Three groups worked on proposals for key topics: Awareness raising – how do we inform employees and residents about climate adaptation? Process structure – how are measures implemented? Financing – costs of climate adaptation measures and overview of internal funds and support programmes. The workshop identified important next steps for making outdoor facilities climate-resilient.
WORKSHOP AT THE CLIMATE FESTIVAL
At the Climate Festival for the Building Transition at STATION Berlin, Joerg Th. Coqui led a workshop on the pilot project Institute for Physics at Humboldt University Berlin, which won the German Landscape Architecture Prize in the ‘Maturity Examination’ category in 2025. The topics of the workshop included rainwater management, façade greening and building cooling. The project’s outcomes include new building regulations for properties without drainage and recommendations for pesticide-free, root-resistant bitumen membranes. Several legal provisions, laws and regulations have been adopted by other federal states.
RAINWATER TOUR AT LANDSBERGER ALLEE 52
We say, following Karl Valentin: ‘I am happy when it rains, because if I am not happy, it rains anyway.’ Rain is a natural phenomenon that plays a central role in many areas of our lives. However, in view of climate change, it is no longer enough to simply appreciate it. Its targeted use is becoming an everyday necessity. What used to be an option is now becoming an obligation: consciously protecting, storing and using water.
CONFERENCE ON CLIMATE ADAPTATION
At the symposium on climate adaptation with a focus on heat and drought organised by the Potsdam district association of the AWO (Workers’ Welfare Association) on 30 September 2025, Izabela Malachowska-Coqui presented our two climate adaptation concepts for the AWO in Wittstock/Dosse and Prenzlau in a keynote speech on climate-sensitive planning for vulnerable groups. In the second part of the symposium, which dealt with participation processes, she also conducted a workshop. In this workshop, participants worked together on the question of how problems relating to heat and heat protection in facilities can be identified and named.
CLIMATE ADAPTATION WEEK
As part of the nationwide Climate Adaptation Week and the BuGG Action Week on Green Buildings, Joerg Th. Coqui led a fully booked tour last week with 40 participants through the courtyards and along the green facades of the Institute of Physics at Humboldt University in Berlin. The lively interest once again demonstrates the continuing relevance of this project, which was completed in 2003 and awarded the German Landscape Architecture Prize in the category ‘maturity examination’ in 2025.
PARTICIPATION IN PRENZLAU
As in Wittstock, we also held four participation days for our second climate adaptation project with the AWO in Prenzlau, during which residents and employees were able to actively contribute. Participation was a central component of the planning process: it enabled the needs, wishes and everyday knowledge of the users to be incorporated at an early stage and measures to be developed in a realistic manner. Together, we managed to develop 80 smaller and larger measures for climate adaptation. At the closing event, some of the measures were already marked out in the garden. We had a lot of fun and are now looking forward to further implementation!
PARTICIPATION DAYS FOR AWO IN WITTSTOCK
As part of the development of the climate adaptation concept for the AWO residential home ‘Haus unter den Linden’ in Wittstock/Dosse, we held four participation days over a period of twelve months. Residents and staff were actively involved from the outset in an open workshop format with input presentations, surveys and small group work. The current planning status was regularly presented and further developed jointly. This allowed a wide range of perspectives to be incorporated and concrete ecological and social measures to be developed. After twelve months, the climate concept is now complete and implementation is about to begin.
BEAUTIFUL TRANSFORMATION – AESTHETICS AND DESIGN OF CLIMATE-FRIENDLY BUILDING CULTURE
On 16 May 2025, Joerg Th. Coqui gave a lecture on new aesthetics in landscape architecture at the Grassi Museum of Applied Arts in Leipzig. In Forum 1, entitled ‘Beautiful Green and Blue – On the Aesthetics of Climate-Resilient Urban Landscapes,’ he spoke about the interplay between aesthetics and climate protection, using the example of our project of the Humboldt University of Berlin’s Institute of Physics, which got awarded at this year’s German Landscape Architecture Prize.
VISITING BERLIN
The delegation of the Poznan City Conservator’s Office, together with the head of the Poznan City Architectural Office, council members and employees of the Office involved in the development of the E. Szyc Stadium in Poznan as a competition jury, went on an excursion to Berlin. Various recreational and sports areas in Berlin were visited under the guidance of Izabela Malchowska-Coqui. These included Gleisdreieck Park, the Südpark area, as well as intensive and extensive natural parks within the city. They also visited Möckernkiez, located at Gleisdreieck, with architect Christoph Roedig. This excursion gave the participants the opportunity to visit various recreational and green areas and gather inspiration for the development of the city of Poznan.
FILM ABOUT THE GERMAN-POLISH GARDENS
The film, which we co-produced, sheds light on the background and history of the German-Polish Gardens, features interviews with those involved and presents the project. The initiative for the gardens in Skaryszewski Park in Warsaw was launched on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the German-Polish Neighbourhood Treaty.