BERLIN, 22 June 2026
BUILDING THE CITY | Idealism, commitment and care for the city and architecture
In 2026, the JUNG Architecture Talks are celebrating their 20th anniversary. Building networks, learning new things, enjoying the entertainment and engaging in professional discussions in a relaxed atmosphere – that is what our event is all about this year too.
We were delighted to welcome you to the JUNG Architecture Talks in Berlin on 22 June for the 13th time. This year’s evening at the Chamäleon Theatre was themed Shaping the City Yourself. To mark the occasion, we invited three architects who contribute to current urban and architectural debates with a great deal of personal idealism, commitment and care.
Attendees were treated to a keynote talk by Oana Bogdan from the Brussels-based architectural practice &bogdan. Alongside her work as an architect, Oana Bogdan has also been actively involved in political and social issues for many years. Indeed, back in the 2010s, she served, amongst other roles, as State Secretary for Culture in her home country of Romania. We were also delighted to welcome to the panel the architect, exhibition curator and author Ludwig Heimbach from Cologne. He is passionately committed to the preservation of two Berlin icons of Brutalism: the ‘Mäusebunker’ by Gerd and Magdalena Hänska and the Hygiene Institute by Hermann Fehling and Daniel Gogel. Last but not least, we were delighted to welcome the Berlin architect Peter Grundmann. The architect was recently awarded the DAM Prize 2026 for the thoughtful and personally dedicated conversion of a historic goods station in Berlin-Moabit into the Centre for Art and Urbanism (ZK/U).
The evening was moderated by Dr. Thomas Welter, Federal Managing Director of the BDA (Association of German Architects).
We were delighted to welcome you to the JUNG Architecture Talks in Berlin on 22 June for the 13th time. This year’s evening at the Chamäleon Theatre was themed Shaping the City Yourself. To mark the occasion, we invited three architects who contribute to current urban and architectural debates with a great deal of personal idealism, commitment and care.
Attendees were treated to a keynote talk by Oana Bogdan from the Brussels-based architectural practice &bogdan. Alongside her work as an architect, Oana Bogdan has also been actively involved in political and social issues for many years. Indeed, back in the 2010s, she served, amongst other roles, as State Secretary for Culture in her home country of Romania. We were also delighted to welcome to the panel the architect, exhibition curator and author Ludwig Heimbach from Cologne. He is passionately committed to the preservation of two Berlin icons of Brutalism: the ‘Mäusebunker’ by Gerd and Magdalena Hänska and the Hygiene Institute by Hermann Fehling and Daniel Gogel. Last but not least, we were delighted to welcome the Berlin architect Peter Grundmann. The architect was recently awarded the DAM Prize 2026 for the thoughtful and personally dedicated conversion of a historic goods station in Berlin-Moabit into the Centre for Art and Urbanism (ZK/U).
The evening was moderated by Dr. Thomas Welter, Federal Managing Director of the BDA (Association of German Architects).
Impressions
Photography: Tim Dornaus
OANA BOGDAN
&BOGDAN, BRUSSELS (BE)
Oana Bogdan, born in 1977, questions the traditional role of the architect and applies architectural skills to complex societal systems. She served as Romanian State Secretary for Culture, led the reform commission of the Brussels building code under the motto “Good Living”, and since 2023 has been Chair of the Dutch Creative Industries Fund (Architecture) as well as a member of the Board of the Flanders Architecture Institute.
“&bogdan is an internationally active architecture and urban planning office founded in Brussels in 2007. With its roots in regenerative, socially engaged design, it places a strong emphasis on human interaction and public space. In collaboration with multidisciplinary teams with representatives of municipalities, institutions and economic sectors it designs future-proof cities in which resources can actively regenerate.”
www.bogdan.design
Image: © Eva Donckers Photography
“&bogdan is an internationally active architecture and urban planning office founded in Brussels in 2007. With its roots in regenerative, socially engaged design, it places a strong emphasis on human interaction and public space. In collaboration with multidisciplinary teams with representatives of municipalities, institutions and economic sectors it designs future-proof cities in which resources can actively regenerate.”
www.bogdan.design
Image: © Eva Donckers Photography
LUDWIG HEIMBACH
LUDWIG HEIMBACH ARCHITEKTUR, COLOGNE/BERLIN
Ludwig Heimbach is an architect based in Cologne and Berlin. His office realises projects in the fields of workplaces, building transformation and housing. In 2016, he received the Villa Kamogawa Kyoto scholarship of the Goethe-Institut and has taught, among others, at ETH Zurich, the Münster School of Architecture, Kyoto City University of Arts and KU Leuven. He curated the exhibition “Mäusebunker und Hygieneinstitut. Eine Berliner Versuchsanordnung”, shown at the BDA Galerie Berlin in 2020 and at the Architecture Biennale in Venice in 2021. In 2025, the book of the same name, edited by him and based on this exhibition, was published.
“I understand architecture as an instrument of acceleration and deceleration between urban space and bed. It is the stage for changing ideas of living and comfort. We approach projects from this cross-scalar perspective on architecture: through the design of thresholds and filters for moving users; from the urban exterior space to the piece of furniture; and as a continuation of the built environment.”
www.ludwig-heimbach.com
Image: © Ludwig Heimbach Architektur
“I understand architecture as an instrument of acceleration and deceleration between urban space and bed. It is the stage for changing ideas of living and comfort. We approach projects from this cross-scalar perspective on architecture: through the design of thresholds and filters for moving users; from the urban exterior space to the piece of furniture; and as a continuation of the built environment.”
www.ludwig-heimbach.com
Image: © Ludwig Heimbach Architektur
PETER GRUNDMANN
PETER GRUNDMANN ARCHITEKTUR, BERLIN
Peter Grundmann, born in Röbel/Müritz, studied mechanical and shipbuilding engineering at the University of Rostock between 1986 and 1989 and worked as a shipbuilding engineer from 1990 to 1991. In 1993, he founded his own architecture office. From 1994 to 1998, he studied architecture at Wismar University of Applied Sciences, followed by further studies at the Weißensee Kunsthochschule Berlin until 2001. Peter Grundmann is a founding member of the non-profit association HAUS ETHIOPIA e. V., which established a home for homeless people in Addis Ababa. Since 2007 he has been active in the rural cultural association Quillo e. V. in Falkenhagen, where, as a pioneer of self-build initiatives, he renovated the theatre and cinema building.
“To be a complete modern human being, one must expose oneself to the experiential possibilities of modern architecture. A house must be complex; it must generate knowledge or experience. For me, that is the essential task of architecture: to enable, not to symbolise. All thinking that does not lead to utopia is merely a search for other forms of organisation within the same symbolic order in which the misery first arose.”
www.petergrundmann.com
Image: © Peter Grundmann
“To be a complete modern human being, one must expose oneself to the experiential possibilities of modern architecture. A house must be complex; it must generate knowledge or experience. For me, that is the essential task of architecture: to enable, not to symbolise. All thinking that does not lead to utopia is merely a search for other forms of organisation within the same symbolic order in which the misery first arose.”
www.petergrundmann.com
Image: © Peter Grundmann
MODERATION
The event was moderated by Dr Thomas Welter, Federal Managing Director of the BDA (Bund Deutscher Architektinnen und Architekten).
The BDA was founded in 1903 as an association of independent architects in order to better assert the role and content of architecture in response to the declining quality of the built environment. The BDA brings together independent architects and urban planners who distinguish themselves not only through the quality of their buildings, but also through high personal integrity and collegiality.
www.bda-bund.de
Image: © Till Budde
The BDA was founded in 1903 as an association of independent architects in order to better assert the role and content of architecture in response to the declining quality of the built environment. The BDA brings together independent architects and urban planners who distinguish themselves not only through the quality of their buildings, but also through high personal integrity and collegiality.
www.bda-bund.de
Image: © Till Budde
