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.
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.
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.
GRAD
Within the bounds of the GRAD- Strategy of Green Roofs project, representatives of 8 pilot cities undertook a study tour to Hamburg on June 5 and 6, 2019. During this trip, they learned more about the development of the city’s green roof strategy, observed how it is changing the urban landscape, and visited fascinating objects with green roofs and vivid walls. These are becoming more numerous every year — the city of Hamburg’s goal is to cover urban areas of up to 100 hectares with vegetation. New green roofs are being built on both public and private buildings — residential and commercial — and a significant number of them are open to the public.
DEVELOPMENT OF THE REGION OF BIG RIVERS OF THE LEBUSER LAND — PROGRAM LEADER +
In 2006 the office was intensively involved in the design and implementation of a pioneering project for tourism development and economic regeneration in rural areas. The work began with the initiation of a series of workshops, consisting of 8 workshops, which involved both the administration and the residents of five municipalities in the region of the Great River Landscape in the borderland — Cybinka, Słubice, Górzyca, Słońsk and Witnica. In parallel, the office supported the establishment of the ROZWÓJ REGIONU WIELKICH RZEK ZIEMI LUBUSKIEJ Foundation, of which Izabela Malachowska-Coqui has been a board member since 2006. Through successful applications, the project received a total of 965,000 euros in funding from the Leader+ program. Cooperation with the municipality of Górzyca and its committed mayor Robert Stolarski played a key role in the success of this ambitious project. A total of 50 participants took part in the workshop series, whose enthusiasm and commitment made a valuable contribution to the positive development of the region.
“GARDENS OF URBAN REDEVELOPMENT” — RECYCLABLE MATERIAL GARDEN
In 2005, the “Gardens of Urban Redevelopment” project brought a breath of fresh air to Leipzig-Grünau. A highlight of this project was the “Wertstoffgarten” — a one-week workshop, which we conducted in cooperation with cet‑0 and Susanne Schnorbusch and about 20 residents of Brackestraße 50 on the plot. Our focus was on the creative use of forgotten materials from the deconstruction of prefabricated buildings. Each element had the potential to have its own theme or alternative use. A platform of recycled slats served as a stage for the transformation of these materials. Here, art was created from raw materials, and the mini-workshop pulsed with creativity. We created the possibility of transforming the temporary character of the “recyclables garden” into a permanent use if there was interest. Materials and equipment could be given to users for their ideas. The results of the workshop were presented in an exhibition. Selected forms were transformed in real time on site during the workshop, which could be experienced as a performance. These transformed forms were eventually integrated as design elements in the gardens and open spaces of the residential landscape to promote sustainable change.