003 – Hans Vollmer

While studying landscape architecture at TU Munich and Bordeaux, Hans Vollmer focused on transformations of former industrial landscapes, developing his bachelor thesis on the opportunities of converting and re-programing an abandoned aluminum smelter in Oregon, USA.

In 2008 and 2009, he worked for Vogt Landscape in Zurich and London on international projects like Tate Modern2 and the Athletes Village for London Olympics 2012.

The interdisciplinary approach of the Urban Design master program (HCU Hamburg) allowed him to combine and test design and planning skills with ethnographic research methods. Together with his master colleague Ben Pohl, they looked at the urban phenomena of Kiosks as places of inter-culture, and focussed their master thesis on spatial and economical practices of gastronomic actors and their places as urban centralities.

His particular interested in the research project within Low-Budget Urbanity is the transfer of (practical) knowledge in urban self-building processes.He sees himself as a self-builder, with a curiosity in opportunities of re- and up-cycling by using local secondary resources and materials, harvested in the city.