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For almost a decade Günther Prechter, architect in Bregenz, and Thomas Körner-Wilsdorf, art teacher and builder-in-charge at Augsburg’s Holbein-Gymnasium, have been jointly practising “building as self-help”. With Café Tür-an-Tür a participative understanding of architecture and daily demand for robust integration models come together. An old bus garage in the workshop wing of the zib site was converted to the new café. The threatening conflict with neighbours prior to the opening of collective accommodation for asylum seekers in the neighbourhood provided an incentive to use the conversion as an opportunity for participation, integration and identification. The competence pool of Tür-an-Tür activists was closely integrated into the planning and the needs and wishes of neighbours were identified in neighbourhood workshops. Every available hand was used in the building process: schoolchildren, students, neighbours and asylum seekers rubbed shoulders with tradesmen. The roof beams and walls were freed from decades of workshop dust; the underside of the roof was thermally insulated and acoustically optimised with wood wool panels; rough-sawn pine planks were laid; larch panels were screwed together to form benches; the surfaces of custom-made maple wood tops were sanded; the paint on the counter front was polished to a shine and patchworks sewn – much of this by amateurs with expert guidance.
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