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Johann Petersmann is a Swiss architect and urban planner. He is mainly concerned with the topic of convertible architecture and urban structures that have a special ability to change through predefined transformation mechanisms. His considerations are mainly based on the fact that all human biotopes are places that are subject to constant mutation and therefore, he thinks that architects must take natural metabolism into account when planning and designing urban territories – that he sees as giant organisms and calls MACROSPHERE – in order to create a more resilient world. His global approach is intended to implement flexible urban fabrics that are essential for a sustainable and future-oriented evolution of territories and their populations.
Over the course of his career, Johann Petersmann has always based his work on the same strategic goal, which is to create a resilient society, by materializing the capacity cities can have to offer spaces that remain useful in the long term. While designing buildings that can easily be adapted and transformed, he tries at the same time to implement projects that have a strong social orientation. His goal consists in creating built environments that people should be able to identify with, architectures that can help them to develop a valuable relationship with the city they live in, materializing a constant urban figure that includes a certain flexibility. Over the years, Johann Petersmann has developed several housing projects. He renovated public buildings and also designed facilities that unite sport, education and office spaces.
With the aim of combining theory and practice, Johann Petersmann has always been active in the academic sphere alongside his profession as architect and urban planner. He has organized seminars and conferences on sustainable architecture and has co-chaired international workshops and continuing education courses. In addition to his work as a consultant and his participation in international research groups, he has taught at colleges and universities. He has supervised final theses and diplomas and has taken part in several juries and desk critics.
Over the course of his career, Johann Petersmann has always based his work on the same strategic goal, which is to create a resilient society, by materializing the capacity cities can have to offer spaces that remain useful in the long term. While designing buildings that can easily be adapted and transformed, he tries at the same time to implement projects that have a strong social orientation. His goal consists in creating built environments that people should be able to identify with, architectures that can help them to develop a valuable relationship with the city they live in, materializing a constant urban figure that includes a certain flexibility. Over the years, Johann Petersmann has developed several housing projects. He renovated public buildings and also designed facilities that unite sport, education and office spaces.
With the aim of combining theory and practice, Johann Petersmann has always been active in the academic sphere alongside his profession as architect and urban planner. He has organized seminars and conferences on sustainable architecture and has co-chaired international workshops and continuing education courses. In addition to his work as a consultant and his participation in international research groups, he has taught at colleges and universities. He has supervised final theses and diplomas and has taken part in several juries and desk critics.
In order to create the conditions for environmentally sustainable spatial development, MACROSPHERE is committed to promoting a building culture based on the principles of circularity while creating urban fabrics that remain functional in the long term. If we want to integrate today's urban landscape into a transformation dynamic that leads to its controlled renewal, we must not only achieve greater autonomy for every urban entity, but also connect them to an infrastructure that can withstand a certain adaptability. One of the main protagonists are the people that are living within cities and urbanized areas and we therefore wish to see their involvement being reinforced, so that places become territories where appropriation of space and social interaction can become a permanent reality that is superior to everything else. We must not only design our respective build environments in such a way that they are suitable for the modern collective way of living, but also create places and locations that are able to accommodate changes of all kinds. Because the world is constantly evolving, the building fabric must also be able to react and stay responsive in order to ensure that communities can make optimum use of it. Through an integrative planning strategy, MACROSPHERE aims to create sustainable ecosystems that can be adapted to a "smart and conscious” society, fostering communities of people that are aware of the challenges they are facing and their necessary participation in global ecological transition.
The various strategies and solutions we are willing to offer in terms of urban planning, are based on eco-friendly principles and the promotion of a building culture that allows the natural regeneration of the built environment. At the same time, we are committed to achieve the enhancement of the architectural heritage of every place and city we are working in, thusly ensuring the durability of various tangible as well as intangible components. Throughout a large spectrum of sustainable concepts, MACROSPHERE aims to reduce CO2 emissions from the building industry and to combat the production of waste in the construction sector. Above all, our goal is to preserve the gray energy stored in every building through the recycling and the re-use of materials. By promoting low-cost construction methods, we also want to limit energy costs during construction phase and during the subsequent use of space in time, thusly contributing to the protection of natural resources thanks to approaches such as the transformation of already used building elements into new ones, a basic principle of convertible architecture. Through convertibility, we can ensure that our architectural creations will be more sustainable, as they adapt to different functions, different orientations and social trends. In the field of spatial planning, MACROSPHERE aims above all to create urban fabrics that are suitable for different purposes, architectures that can respond to different needs and thusly enable societies to become more resilient to global change.
In the search for sustainable solutions in the field of architecture, MACROSPHERE wishes to develop a global approach that can redefine the construction sector, creating systems that integrate the will to foster the participation of local labor and a “way of doing” that is especially based on a circular economy. We are well aware that a sustainable development must not only focus on the environment, but also encourage our society to keep certain professions alive so that we can guarantee that the know-how and experience that have been built up over centuries can be passed on to future generations. While offering high-quality solutions and innovative construction methods that combine new technologies with materials that are coming from energy- and resource-saving production chains, MACROSPHERE implements architectural solutions that can respond well to different situations and needs. In this context, our work is characterized above all by a strong social commitment. In every project we undertake, our goal is to promote artisanal activities by developing solutions that focus on technical performance, require a certain degree of manual work, and encourage the direct contribution of certain specialized professional groups. This leads to effective results that are considered good social models. The idea of integrating local labor into the process allows us to preserve a universal principle of architecture, namely the transmission of fundamental values in art and science that belong to a traditional building culture.
We offer planning strategies that are environmentally friendly, enabling a territorial development that has a certain resilience throughout architectural results that can be useful on the long term.
We offer services and studies for the private sector as well as for public organizations and institutions, through innovative and easy-to-implement solutions. We focus on inclusive approaches, well-being and social-ethical values as well as environmental friendliness. Our main task is to optimize the spatial capacity of urban territories and to consider distinctive aspects in regional planning that can promote a sustainable spatial transformation. Through concepts such as circularity, energy autonomy and other effective approaches such as convertibility, we aim to create a healthy and resilient living environment for people.
We are active in the research and development of manufacturing processes that favor the reuse of materials through circular principles.
Our aim is to convert building materials that have been dismantled during demolition and renovation projects into new, ready-to-use components by combining and upgrading the various reclaimed elements, creating end products whose performance is equivalent to the use of new materials. The innovative techniques we favor are resource-efficient, conserve gray energy and promote an environmentally conscious approach and help to reduce global CO2 emissions. Our processes are based on the participation of local labor and the revival of a certain traditional regional “know-how”.
We have made it our mission to develop prefabricated building systems that can be easily integrated into architectural projects and provide solutions that are based on sustainable practices.
Our goal is to create convertible urban structures and architectures whose main achievement lies in their ability to adapt to different functions. By combining “innovative design” with “sustainable construction methods”, high-quality buildings are thus produced whose fabric can be adapted and changed either by replacing or substituting their components. Our aim is to develop and implement simple architectural solutions that can be adapted and modified through a long-term process, without this continuous metabolism having negative consequences or uncontrolled effects on the environment.
Our services are aimed at:
ARCHITECTURAL FIRMS that want to incorporate environmentally friendly criteria and eco-design into their projects and create convertible buildings that can be easily adapted and modified in time.
Studies of feasibility: Identification of opportunities to redesign existing urban structures and buildings. Enhancing heritage through circular concepts such as the reuse of building materials and ecological proposals that enable the urban fabric to be more resilient over time.
Eco-design: Energy and cost optimization in the context of architectural and urban projects. Good use of the natural assets and the potentials of a site. Developing bioclimatic concepts and decisions that promote sustainable and environmentally friendly solutions.
Eco-design: Energy and cost optimization in the context of architectural and urban projects. Good use of the natural assets and the potentials of a site. Developing bioclimatic concepts and decisions that promote sustainable and environmentally friendly solutions.
Our services are aimed at:
PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS that are committed to sustainable development and wish to define new ways of addressing the global challenges and ecological transition.
Regional planning and urban design: Development of a territorial and spatial planning approach based on innovative concepts in urban development and a professional expertise through a multi-scale management that includes a sustainable overall strategy.
Digitization of the built environment: Creation of a technical “repertoire” of existing buildings and urban fabrics with the aim of creating a platform in which all components are referenced according to their performance, materiality, age and estimated lifespan.
Digitization of the built environment: Creation of a technical “repertoire” of existing buildings and urban fabrics with the aim of creating a platform in which all components are referenced according to their performance, materiality, age and estimated lifespan.
Our services are aimed at:
BUILDING COMPANIES & MANUFACTURERS: who want to develop an innovative and ecological range of products by using materials from renewable resources which comply with the principle of zero emissions and zero waste.
Re-manufacturing: We support manufacturers who wishes to develop production methods that promote a circular economy and sustainable principles. We establish market strategies and define options of use for all type of products. We help to build production chains based on the reuse of materials.
Urban mining: We advise companies that wishes to recover existing building materials. We locate sites and develop strategies that lead to the acquisition of already used materials that are still valuable. We create catalogs and datasheets and supervise the entire dismantling –transport and storage process.
Urban mining: We advise companies that wishes to recover existing building materials. We locate sites and develop strategies that lead to the acquisition of already used materials that are still valuable. We create catalogs and datasheets and supervise the entire dismantling –transport and storage process.