MVRDV celebrates the 500th anniversary of Fuggerei Social Housing by completing its cantilevered pavilion

MVRDV has completed its 8.5 meter cantilevered pavilion to celebrate the 500th anniversary of the founding of Fuggerei Social Housing in Augsburg, Germany.

Design Features

The wooden pavilion was designed for the Fuggerei, the oldest social housing community in the world, called the Fuggerei NEXT500 Pavilion.

The Fugger Foundations launched a 5-week program of interdisciplinary discussions

and events on social housing and current global challenges as part of the Fuggerei’s 500th anniversary.

The pavilion was inaugurated on May 6 in the presence of many dignitaries and founders of the Foggere family.

On Saturday 7 May, President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen visited the exhibition held inside the pavilion.

The exhibition also presents the MVRDV study on “Fuggerei of the Future”,

presenting a new Fuggerei code and three proposals for new Fuggerei complexes around the world.

Design shape

The pavilion is designed as a tall, narrow and gabled building,

to create an undulating and floating architecture, and has an area of ​​150 square meters.

MVRDV is inspired by Fuggerei tall houses with the same terraces,

rather than a single straight block, one end of the wing is slightly curved and raised.

This is in reference to his role in looking into the future of the Fuggereien,

both in Augsburg and around the world.

This raised portion creates a 8.5-meter cantilever that houses a platform for lectures,

discussions, workshops and other cultural events.

The pavilion is made entirely of cross-linked plywood (CLT),

pushing the boundaries of modern CLT technology with its 8-meter-high double-bent cantilevered elements.

Sustainability also played a critical role in the choice of this structural approach, with timber storing carbon rather than releasing it into the atmosphere,

while CLT allowed the pavilion to use a modular system that makes the pavilion easily demountable,

ensuring a second life can be achieved within a social or sustainable context.

MVRDV celebrates the 500th anniversary of Fuggerei Social Housing by completing its cantilevered pavilion

The wood was sourced from Fuggerei’s own forests, while the wooden interiors were created by a local carpenter.

Although Fuggerei was founded in 1521 by German merchant Jakob Fugger,

in these times of housing shortage, climate crisis, social inequality and isolation,

Fuggerei’s sustainability-oriented and people-centered concept still provides a model for our times.

For the exhibition, MVRDV and the Fugger Foundation studied the existing complex in Augsburg and in keeping with the newly written

“Fuggerei Code” of Fuggere, they distilled the complex’s formula for successful social housing.

The result is 8 simple “building blocks” that provide the basis for a new Fuggerei system that can be adapted to different contexts around the world.

These building blocks are also referenced in the pavilion’s interior design,

with eight different exhibition and event spaces inspired by the eight building blocks.

MVRDV has also developed three proposals for Fuggerei within and outside Europe,

to test these principles, the first being a proposal for the original city of Augsburg,

distinguished from the original Fuggerei by its educational focus,

with the aim of providing self-determination and reducing the wealth gap in the city through education.

MVRDV celebrates the 500th anniversary of Fuggerei Social Housing by completing its cantilevered pavilion

The Fuggerei II of the future is also designed for a community in rural Lithuania,

focusing on the poverty of the elderly and the social welfare crisis due to an aging population with a complex set in a beautiful natural environment.

The third Fuggerei film focuses on Rothumba, a remote fishing village in Sierra Leone,

with a strategy to empower residents and create a safe environment for women and children.

Based on the Fuggerei code and building blocks developed in the study,

these futuristic Fuggereien looks depend on purpose and location, but the principles are the same as the 500-year-old original.

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