PetersenArchitekten
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Unbuilt – Projects in Dortmund

Dortmund

“UNBUILT – Projects in Dortmund” is online

We look back on 20 years of exciting projects – many of which have already become valuable components of the city, while others have remained visions on paper. To mark our anniversary, we are also dedicating ourselves to all those designs that tell the story of a different city but have remained UNBUILT. Creative visions at prominent locations in Dortmund that would certainly have fundamentally changed the city in terms of its aesthetics and function. As diverse as the selection of typologies on display may be, they are united by their close connection to the eventful history of Dortmund as a Ruhr metropolis, with all its upheavals. What if all these designs had become reality?

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VERNISSAGE “PRESERVING THE PAST. EMBRACING THE NEW. CULTURE OF ADAPTIVE REUSE IN BERLIN”

Under the motto “Berlin needs a new building culture – a reuse culture,” the Berlin Senate Department for Urban Development, Construction, and Housing is showcasing pioneering projects of high design quality that contribute to sustainable urban development. Among other things, the exhibition features the Spreestudios – Platte and Kantine project, which we implemented and which is characterized by a careful yet fundamental conversion practice that demonstrates the transformation potential of so-called prefabricated buildings from the GDR era. During the conversion process, the supporting structure of the former customs administration building in Rummelsburger Bucht was raised, making use of existing load reserves, and redesigned into a creative hub.

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01 | 2025
UNBUILT MAP DORTMUND

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Competition Roof Becomes Stair

Venedig

2nd prize in the international competition “The Architect’s Stair”

Our design for a staircase in the Salone Verde Art & Social Club, created from the redundant beams of the roof structure, draws on a circular construction practice that has been practiced naturally and intuitively in Venice for centuries—and won over the jury: “Roof Becomes Stair transforms a modest restoration challenge into a sculptural intervention rooted in the layered logic of Venetian architecture. Set within the Salone Verde Art & Social Club, the project reuses redundant horizontal roof beams—removed during heritage works—to form a new timber spiral staircase connecting to a once-inaccessible attic gallery. The approach blends craftsmanship and critical reflection, embedding ideas of permanence and reuse in both form and process.”

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PA.bestpic – Overview 2025

Every month, we bring together all the moments and finds that have inspired and occupied us over the past few weeks. We look for motifs that reflect our view of architecture and our daily work or reveal new perspectives – be it art, music, people, ecology, economics, a challenge, an unexpected inspiration or a reason for spontaneous joy… everything comes into the discourse. At the end of each month, we choose our favorite at both office locations – click here for the contributions:

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Competition Urban dot – ObenLand

Bonn

Mühlengrund district

Berlin

Mühlengrund district is nominated for the German Urban Development Award 2025

We are delighted to announce that our project for the Mühlengrundquartier has been shortlisted for the German Urban Development Award 2025. The German Urban Development Award recognizes projects that set standards for sustainable urban development. The nomination recognizes the sustainable and innovative planning that makes the Mühlengrund district a liveable and sustainable place.

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Competition Wellinghofer Straße

Dortmund

2nd Prize Competition Wellinghoferstraße

The competition for the construction of apartment buildings on two building plots on the site of the former fire station 4, located west of Wellinghofer Str. in Dortmund-Hörde, has been decided. The jury, chaired by Juliane Kopperschmidt, architects and landscape architects from Dortmund, met on 25.10.2023 and awarded three prizes to twelve participating architectural firms.

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11 | 2023
Dachkult 11/2023 – Increase | Spreestudio – Platte und Kantine

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Competition Eisenwerkgelände Böhmer

Witten

1st Prize Competition Eisenwerkgelände Böhmer

In the urban development qualification process for the former ironworks site, Petersen Architekten’s concept came out on top and was awarded first prize. The aim of the competition was to develop a long-term strategy to create a modern quarter.

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Senior Architect (f/m/d) with a passion for construction and detail
Senior Architect (m/w/d)
Berlin

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Restructuring Old Piano Factory

Berlin

Decathlon

Herne

Decathlon in Herne gets a new envelope

PETERSENARCHITEKTEN stand for buildings that grow with their use and can react flexibly to new requirements. This was also the case with the DECATHLON headquarters in Herne – completed more than 20 years ago, we sat down with DECATHLON Germany once again and took stock. In close consultation with the management and staff, we developed an overall concept for building optimization that not only includes a sustainable energy concept, but also expansions and adjustments to the available space.

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Competition Multi-Generational House With Day Care Facility

Salach

Deutschlandstipendium – HFT Stuttgart 2024/25

PETERSENARCHITEKTEN is once again sponsoring a Germany Scholarship at the Stuttgart University of Applied Sciences this year. We are delighted with our scholarship holder Jan Hartung from the Climate Engineering course and the 98 other students who have been selected for a scholarship.

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Hotel Müggelseeperle

Berlin

Spreestudios – Platte and Kantine

Berlin

Competition Urban Center

Berlin

Our summer party 2024

In addition to working together on new ways of building and working out ingenious details, summer for us is always accompanied by long summer evenings that we enjoy spending together. One particular summer highlight was our summer party, which we all met up for in Berlin this year.

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PETERSENARCHITEKTEN GOES VENICE

Every year, we travel with the entire PETERSENARCHITEKTEN team to get to know each other better, to have a good time together – but above all to share what unites us: our passion for good architecture! This year we went to the Architecture Biennale in Venice under the motto “The Laboratory of the Future”. There we had the opportunity to marvel together, broaden our horizons and network with colleagues from all over the world.

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12 | 2020
Building Culture Report 2022/23 – New Conversion Cultures

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The New Leitz

Stuttgart

Architect (f/m/d) with a passion for concept development and design
Junior-Architekt (m/w/d)
Berlin

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Interview with Ralf Petersen – “Department stores are a product of the past”

A decline in the popularity of department stores has been observed not only since the beginning of the corona crisis. Ralf Petersen in an interview with RBB24 about causes, developments and visions.

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Densification at RWI 4

Düsseldorf

RAG House Dortmund

Dortmund

Working student (f/m/d) for challenging projects
Werkstudent (m/w/d)
Stuttgart

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Multifunctional Space Extension

Berlin

PETERSENARCHITEKTEN honored with Iconic Award

PETERSENARCHITEKTEN won two awards at the ICONIC AWARDS – Innovative Architecture with the projects “Spreestudios – Platte” and “Spreestudios – Kantine”, a former GDR service building and the associated canteen, which are located on the site of the former river bathing facility at Rummelsburger Bucht.

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Hafenküche

Berlin

Hafenhaus

Berlin

Completion of the Hafenküche

The Hafenküche on the Spree is small – but not insignificant in terms of infrastructure: as a canteen for neighbors and surrounding businesses, for guest berths in the marina next door, for catering the saloon boats and as a beer garden for sundowners. The dilapidated building was extended, with an unconventional look right on the water and a beautiful view over the Spree.

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Housing Construction in the Ruhr Area

Dortmund

Spreestudio Clubhaus

Berlin

PETERSENARCHITEKTEN GOES ROTTERDAM

Every year, we travel with the entire PETERSENARCHITEKTEN team to get to know each other better, to have a good time together – but above all to share what unites us: our passion for good architecture! This year we went to Rotterdam, a trip that will stay with us for a while – we are impressed by the willingness to go innovative ways, which can be seen in the numerous new building projects that we were able to visit. We were often lucky enough to be guided by the planners of the offices themselves.

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Competition Institute of the Fire Department NRW

Münster

05 | 2022
Architecture Berlin 2022 – Construction + Industry

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Urban Densification Strategy Max-Eyth-Straße

Dortmund

Intern (f/m/d) with passion for architecture to support our team
Praktikum
Berlin

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Urban Densification Study Nordhafenquartier

Berlin

PETERSENARCHITEKTEN ENTERS SPRING WITH A BREATH OF FRESH AIR

Just in time for the start of spring, we retreated to the house we built on Lake Wandlitz for an intensive week of workshops – to recharge our batteries, take stock and we couldn’t stop ourselves from working together on new visions for our cities and thinking about how we want to live and work in them in the future.

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House at Lake Wandlitz

Wandlitz

Deutschlandstipendium – HFT Stuttgart 2020/21

PETERSENARCHITEKTEN is once again sponsoring a Germany Scholarship at the Stuttgart University of Applied Sciences this year. We are delighted with our scholarship holder Sophia Stettner from the Climate Engineering course and the 98 other students who have been selected for a scholarship.

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11 | 2013
ARCHITECTURE BERLIN

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F40 – House of Business Friedrichstraße

Berlin

The German Lighting Design-Prize

The prize was awarded to Kardorff Ingenieure Lichtplanung GmbH in the “Outdoor lighting and floodlighting” category for the design of the F40_ Berlin office building.

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05 | 2011
Baunetz Meldung 05/2011: „Luminous gap filler“

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Airporthotel Berlin

Berlin

@55 House Of Business

Dortmund

Porsche Center

Dortmund

11 | 2011
Ruhr Area Architecture – Architecture Guide Present and Future

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Westfalenforum – Re-think the Urban

Dortmund

11 | 2020
Ruhr Nachrichten 11/2020 – The design for the Westfalenforum by PetersenArchitects will form the basis for the competition

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Grammer Office HQ

Ebermannsdorf

Emscher G Pavillon

Bottrop

H+H order picking building

Höningen

08 | 1998
Systems – Hansen + Petersen, Buildings 1988-1998

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Emscher G Pavillon

Bottrop

House Bergermann

Welver

Intern (f/m/d) with passion for architecture to support our team
Praktikum
Stuttgart

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Allopro – Medical technology and laboratory building

Gelsenkirchen

Urban Timber Construction Adlershof

Berlin

Kreuzviertel Johanna-Melzer-Straße

Dortmund

New Building On Aktienstraße

Mülheim an der Ruhr

Prof. Ralf Petersen teaches at the RISD

Prof. Ralf Petersen has been teaching building construction and design at the Stuttgart University of Applied Sciences since 2012. Always interested in cooperating with international universities, Ralf Petersen reactivated the connection to RISD and was invited to lead an Advanced Studio in Architecture at RISD this summer semester.

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Residential and Commercial Building Königswall

Dortmund

Residential building Max-Eyth-Straße

Dortmund

Competition Renovation + New Construction Korbach Town hall

Korbach

Competition Kaunas Center

Kaunas, Litauen

Ralf Petersen is appointed professor at the Stuttgart University of Applied Sciences

Prof. Ralf Petersen will take over the Department of Building Construction and Design – especially climate-friendly architecture in the Climate Engineering course in the summer semester of 2012

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Turn On Architecture Festival Wien

At the invitation of the ÖFHF – Austrian Professional Association for Rear-Ventilated Facades – Ralf Petersen gives a lecture at the Turn on 2014 architecture festival in Vienna. Ventilated façades were a focal point at this year’s architecture festival “Turn on”

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2013
CUBE 02/2013: Durable and adaptable – glass office building on Friedrichstrasse

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House at MIR

Gelsenkirchen

PETERSENARCHITEKTEN at EXPO REAL

Ralf PETERSEN on the project F40 office building on Friedrichstrasse, 1st GOLD pre-certification by the DGNB in Berlin from 11:30 – 11:50 a.m.

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Competition Living at Lake Rheinau

Mannheim

Competition Gleisdreieck

Berlin

PETERSENARCHITEKTEN win the Label “best architects 12”

The best architects award honors the best architects from German-speaking countries. Every year, all architects and architectural firms that have realized projects of the highest quality are invited to take part in the competition. An independent jury of renowned architects awards the “best architects” label in five categories (residential buildings, office and administrative buildings, commercial and industrial buildings, other buildings, interior design).

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