Power, Flows, and Transformation

Accounting for about three-quarters of annual global greenhouse gas emissions, the transformation of energy networks is a pivotal step toward planetary sustainability. To transition our current operating systems to work within planetary boundaries, essential decarbonization strategies need to be put in place that will reshape territories, towns, and streets worldwide. Power, Flows, and Transformation explores the energy landscapes connected to Berlin and Brandenburg, rendering power supply as a spatial and material phenomenon with an impactful agency. Through the lens of infrastructural assemblages, readers are guided by numerous maps, drawings, and photographs that immerse them in the expansive regimes of urban energy accumulation across the past, present, and future.

David Bauer is a research associate at the Habitat Unit, Institute of Architecture, TU Berlin. He focuses on urban design and architecture, with a strong emphasis on infrastructure regimes and system design as critical levers for the transformation towards sustainability and resilience. Besides his academic work, David runs the architectural office Bauer+ Pohl Projekte International (BPPI) together with his colleague Martin Pohl. Santiago Martínez Murillo is an architect and urban practitioner focusing on medium-scale urban operations, housing governance, transit-oriented design, and energy transition. As a curiosity-driven, socially engaged professional with experience in planning, design, and research, he works on expanding access to formal urban development and territorial equity in the Global South. Philipp Misselwitz is an architect and urban planner based in Berlin. He holds the Chair of Habitat Unit at the Institute for Architecture, TU Berlin. He is Executive Director of Bauhaus Earth-an interdisciplinary think-tank and lab dedicated to transforming building and human settlements from being drivers of climate and societal crises into creative forces for systemic regeneration. Yuliya Navatskaya is an architect, urban designer and GIS expert engaged in research and mapping on the strategic development of infrastructural provision and extractive practices in the former Soviet states and the Arctic region. She holds an M.Sc. in Architecture from the University of Liechtenstein. Joseph Smithard is a Berlin-based architect and urban researcher. He studied architecture (M.Arch) at the University of Manchester and urban design (M.Sc.) at TU Berlin and is currently a research associate in the InterGrad Academy EGD at Hochschule Anhalt. After completing his studies, he worked in various architecture firms in the UK and Germany on projects ranging from single-family homes to large-scale master plans. Since 2021, alongside three colleagues, he has been researching energy landscapes and infrastructure interconnections in Berlin and Brandenburg. His research focuses on trans-local urban development within the context of the European Green Deal, with an emphasis on infrastructure, climate adaptation, and storytelling.