ACTION
PYLONIA (2) with E-WERK Luckenwalde
Design Stage & Project Planning
2025 — ongoing

The former electricity tower is already enduring its second afterlife. Once used as a workshop space in Stuttgart, it has been disassembled and its pieces transported to Luckenwalde. Here it will become a hybrid storage facility within the E-WERK campus expansion, combining the role of industrial facilitator with that of cultural condenser. Amidst conveyor belts, ventilation ducts, and heaps of material  ...


the design fosters public and cultural engagement with the various stages of energy production. Visitors can access the drying machine, discover an exhibition inside the storage tower, and overlook the yard from the roof terrace.

In its second afterlife, the Pylonia tower challenges the dichotomy between the production of energy and of culture. After all, this structure is deeply rooted in the site's heritage — its silhouette echoes the historical cooling tower of the power plant, while the reuse of the existing foundations avoids mobilizing soil contamination.

>  We are currently exploring funding opportunities while preparing the building permit.




ÉCURIES VAN DE TRAM
as collaborator of ATAMA Architectuur Ghent
BMA Competition Entry (2nd price)
10.2024 — 01.2025

The Bouwmeester invited proposals for a competition to transform the old horse stables of Schaerbeek into an educational center. The proposed design aims to craft a comfortable learning climate with only careful interventions, in order to maintain the meticulous brick façade in the collective memory...

The design challenges conceptions of knowledge production as a frontal format, and instead creates a central social atrium — a space where people gather to debate, argue, and exchange ideas.

The atrium and the new roof act as bioclimatic elements, allowing the building to be naturally ventilated and heated to the highest degree possible, while distributing daylight throughout the depth of the plan.



HYBRID BULK MATERIAL YARD with E-WERK Luckenwalde
Design Stage & Project Planning
2026 — ongoing

Combining socio-cultural programs and technical processes, this material storage unit aims at facilitating the E-WERK’s unique character. This whole structure will be based on reused elements of the Dreispitz-Passage roof and will evoke a critical balance of industrial, cultural and ecological domains...

While simultaneously articulating a conceptual design idea for the Bulk Material Storage, we have finished transporting and storing the reclaimed building elements at the E-WERK. As the facility is a key component in the E-WERK’s expansion, we are currently examining the building permit together with the “Pylonia” project.

The dismantling site is being coordinated by Secklerschick Architekten.

>  This project has been presented at SRU “Circular Building” Report to ministers Verena Hubertz & Carsten Schneider

>  This project has been exhibited at Architecture Weekend Berlin at studio T.O.M.A.S




SAN GIMIGNANO LICHTENBERG
during internship at Brandlhuber + Architekten
Office Building Transformation
2012 — ongoing

After the VEB Elektrokohle factory burnt-down, its ruins remained abandoned, with the silo towers becoming informal landmarks in Berlin Lichtenberg. Purchasing the site meant preserving a piece of cultural heritage. Its resemblance to the towers of San Gimignano inspired both the project’s name and its approach — maintaining the raw concrete façade...

The challenge lay in transforming a burntdown industrial ruin into a legally usable space with minimal architectural intervention. Stairs and floors were added for accessibility, while technical installations and insulation ensured functionality. The unique spatial qualities of the structure were carefully preserved. I contributed to implementation planning, focusing on sanitary areas, interior installations, and kitchen design in collaboration with Sam Chermayeff Office. I also worked closely with contractors and participated in hands-on restoration, including Manfred Pernice’s pavilion, the planting of a Japanese cherry tree, and a structural test on a balcony.

> This project was awarded with the BDA Preis Berlin 2024








RESEARCH
HEALING URBANISM
co-authored with Prof. Antoine Vialle, CUE, TU Berlin
Research Project
2026 — ongoing

This research proposal investigates the territorial dimensions of the Technosol regime in Berlin-Brandenburg, whose socio-ecological continuity is profoundly altered by the long-term impacts of fossil fuel energy production. This research examines how these industrial processes have formed territorial infrastructures, socio-economic livelihoods, and urban metabolisms. In this framework, it explores why soil care is central to the region’s transition toward a climate-resilient future. In response to the complex challenges faced by Berlin-Brandenburg, the approach aims to ...

develop the concept of Healing Urbanism. A practice conceiving of soil care as a form of socio-environmental and spatial design. The concept will expand from the trans-scalar methodology of the Living Lab, already established within the E-WERK Luckenwalde. Through this, three intertwined Technosol crises are addressed: the land use inertia through structural economic shifts, the environmental degradation of soil health through industrial perturbation of ecological cycles, and the socio-political consequences of violent economic-political system change. This proposal investigates these three dimensions in their interdependence, remnants of an obsolete anthropocentric worldview.

>  The research has been presented at the “World Planning Schools Congress“ in Helsinki 2026



SOMEWHERE HERE; 
SOMEWHERE THERE
together with Ciel Grommen, Maximiliaan Royakkers & Tom Van Laer
Artistic Research & Lecture Performance
2025

Together with the co-founders of the Seasonal Neighbours Collective Maximiliaan and Ciel, I collaborated on their new project addressing housing issues of seasonal workers. We conducted numerous study trips allowing us to engage in conversations with the different actors around seasonal housing facilities. Yet, regardless of our efforts, the voice of the workers themselves remained strictly absent. Therefore, our learnings remained subjectively coated by means of informal storytelling - raising the question of...

how to share these findings without appropriating them? When the New Ruralities Team, part of Professor Freek Persyn‘s chair at ETH, invited us to exhibit our research, we contributed an installation that encourages visitors to abandon the objective role of the spectator and instead explore our sound piece from the typical position of a seasonal worker. Vincent Crapanzano drew the analogy between the role of the ethnographer and the Greek god Hermes. What he calls the Hermes dilemma raises the question of rightfully extracting information from one context and translating it into another. Within the framework of It Was All Fields Once, initiated by Professor Freek Persyn‘s chair at ETH, we had the opportunity to elaborate on our contribution through a lecture performance. The Hermes dilemma and the question of processing our fieldwork became the point of departure. We joined the audience in the bunk bed scenography as we transparently exposed our real archival structure. We curated semantically adjacent fragments to form 17 hypotheses. The format turned into a platform for an engaging discussion.

>  The lecture performance was held at “New Ruralities” Symposium by NEWROPE by Prof. Freek Persyn (ETHZ)

>  This research has been exhibited at “New Ruralities” exhibition at TRACK Brussels




REPAIR
Master Thesis at EPFL
supervised by Prof. Jo Taillieu, Prof. Christophe van Gerrewey & Axel Chevroulet
2022 — 2023

The phase of economic and humanitarian emergencies after the Great War functioned as a laboratory for architects to develop quick, rational responses. But socialist visions became stuck in privatization, and values of a bygone society were maintained by preservation laws. Today, residents linger in the communal history while demanding a reappropriation within their modern lives. Through the practice of repair...

  residents acquire tools and skills that turn the act of building into an instrument for collaborative and self-determined liberation. Buildings become continuous artifacts passed on by our ancestors and shaped by the generations to come. “Repair”; In transience, serenity. The Dammwegsiedlung in Berlin-Neukölln from 1919 authentically represents the enormous mass of Berlin workers’ housing. On-site investigations through various lenses allowed a comprehensive understanding of inherent issues and their entanglement within the neighborhood. The resulting repair concept addresses these issues throughout a transcalar and transitory strategy, enabling the residents to realize the architectural interventions. In the near future, these interventions carefully open the obsolete typology to diverse forms of living and modern family constitutions while simultaneously improving the energetic performance. The site’s long-term evolution aims to instigate a persistent community, tackle the high criminality and recuperate ecological damages.  

>  My essay on this project has been published in the UTKAST Magazine 2025 by FÄLT Studio Stockholm







ABOUT


          TIM MARTENS
E      [email protected]
T      +49 173 6015218


Tim Martens (b. 1998, GER) alternately works in the fields of architecture, artistic research, territorial design and urban ecology. He is a trained M.Sc. architect from EPFL Lausanne and TU Berlin, with interdisciplinary experience across Germany, Belgium and Switzerland. His work is a hybrid: tracing how territories operate as arenas between power and life, while cultivating design actions as situated practices of solidarity, more-than-human care and future-making.

Today, Tim fosters design interactions in precarious contexts of the E-WERK Luckenwalde and the OSC Bremerhaven, and co-authors a reading of planetary imaginaries from the soil's perspective. Recently, his work has been disseminated at the "World Planning Schools Congress 2026" in Helsinki, the "New Ruralities Symposium" by NEWROPE (ETHZ), and in "UTKAST" Magazine Stockholm.




RECENT NEWS

>  I am glad to announce that I will present my paper on “Design of Technosol-Care” at the Land Transition Conference 2026 in Paris

>  As a member of Seasonal Neighbours Collective, I get to develop an artistic research project within the framework of “Cultural Capital Leuven 2030”

>  I will be able to contribute an article to a joint peer-reviewed issue hosted by Habitat Unit at TU Berlin





EDUCATION


07.2021 — 10.2023 



10.2016 — 04.2020
M. Sc. Arch at École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne
           supported as DAAD Fellow   
           5.45 graduation grade

B. Sc. Arch at Technische Universität Berlin       
            1.55 graduation grade



WORK
08.2025  —  ongoing


01.2026  — ongoing


10.2025 — ongoing

05.2025 — 10.2025

07.2025 — 01.2026

04.2024 — 05.2025

05.2020 — 05.2021

Architect & Artistic Assistant at E-WERK Luckenwalde by Pablo Wendel & Helen Turner

Artistic Research Project for „Cultural Capital Leuven 2030“ as Member of Seasonal Neighbours Collective

Co-Author of “Healing Urbanism”-Paper with Prof. Antoine Vialle (CUE, TU Berlin)

Junior Researcher for Maximiliaan Royakkers (UAntwerpen) & Ciel Grommen (LUCA)

Consulting Architect for the Extension of the Nordsee-Stadion Bremerhaven

Project Collaborator at ATAMA  / TRANS Architectuur, Ghent BE

Architectural Intern at Brandlhuber+ Architekten



TEACHING

12.2025

10.2025

05.2018 — 04.2020
Guest critic at Chair of Transitioning Urban Ecosystems at TU Berlin

Guest critic at Studio Aardbei at KU Leuven

Tutor at design chair of A13 by Prof. Bettina Kraus at TU Berlin




EXHIBITIONS &
PUBLICATIONS &
CONFERENCES


07.2026

05.2026

04.2026


12.2025

07.2025


08.2025

07.2018
Speaker at World Planning Schools Congress in Helsinki 2026

Selection as Speaker at  Land Transition Conference in Paris 2026

Project Presentation at SRU Circular Construction Conference with Ministers Verena Hubertz and Carsten Schneider

Essay for UTKAST Magazine edited by FÄLT Studio Stockholm

Lecture Performance at „It Was All Fields Once“ Symposium by NEWROPE Prof. Freek Persyn (ETHZ)

Installation at „It Was All Fields Once“ Exhibition with Seasonal Neighbours Collective

Curator of A13 Semesters Exhibition at IFA Open House






INDEPENDENT PRACTICE
02.2026 — ongoing






10.2025 — ongoing






07.2025 — 03.2026
Hybrid Bulk Material Yard, E-WERK Luckenwalde
The Bulk Material Storage reuses structural elements from the Dreispitz-Passage roof to create a circular infrastructure that facilitates the E-WERK campus expansion by mediating industrial, cultural, and ecological functions. I lead the design and project planning, coordinated the transport of the reclaimed elements, supported the dismantling process. Currently, I develop the legal framework and funding structure.

Pylonia (2), E-WERK Luckenwalde
A former electricity tower from Stuttgart is being reassembled at the E-WERK campus in Luckenwalde as a hybrid storage and cultural facility that combines industrial infrastructure with public engagement. I am responsible for the design development and project planning, and coordinated the tower's disassembly process. Currently, I develop the legal framework and funding structure.

Nordseestadion, OSC Bremerhaven
The Nordsee-Stadion aims to transform into a cross-generational care facility. For the federal funding application, I conducted a financial, legislative and urbanistic feasibility study for the 20.000 m² extension.



AT ATAMA ARCHITECTUUR GHENT
10.2024 — 01.2025




12.2024 — 02.2025





08.2024 — 10.2024
Écuries, Schaerbeek Brussels, Competition (2. Prize)
The city of Schaerbeek and the Bouwmeester initiated a competition on transforming the city’s former horse stable into a public education center. For this project I took care of 3D and CAD development, partner collaborations and visualizations.

Triangles, Brussels Ouderghem, Competition (2. Prize)
Together with the Bouwmeester, the city of Ouderghem hosted a competition of transformation of 40’000 m² with four former EU office towers into a housing neighborhood. I took part in the project design phase, was responsible for exterior appearance, 3D modelling and visualizations as well as CAD work.

Greenbizz II, Tivoli Brussels, Competition (2. Prize)
Brought forward by the city of Brussels and the Bouwmeester, the Greenbizz II competition was challenging architects to develop a sustainable pioneer project with the highest requirements on circular construction and building technology. Within the design task, I was responsible for design  3D modelling, CAD planning and visualizations.


AT BRANDLHUBER+ ARCHITEKTEN BERLIN
08.2020 — 05.2021








05.2020 — 09.2020
San Gimignano Lichtenberg
by minimal architectural intervention, the project transforms the burnt-down ruins of a former factory in Berlin Lichtenberg into a legally usable space, preserving its raw concrete façade — awarded the BDA Preis Berlin 2024. I contributed to implementation planning, focusing on sanitary areas, interior installations, and kitchen design in collaboration with Sam Chermayeff Office, and worked closely with contractors on hands-on restoration, including Manfred Pernice's pavilion and a structural test on a balcony.

Siedle Haus
The project sits at the intersection of traditional Black Forest Timber construction and cutting-edge concrete-casting technology, and thus required close collaboration with engineers, energy specialists, and curators. I joined the team for the design phase and developed the guiding details, including staircase, façade, and roof.