CABINETA ARCHITECTURE + URBAN RESEARCH
We work with existing, useful structures and spaces, placing new materials where they will have optimum impact and efficiency. We expermient with construction materials that have low CO2 emmissions and that constitute carbon sinks. Furthermore, we investigate passive energy systems and synergies between architecture and MEP-installations. We plan for long life-cycles and assess products in the building industry for longevitiy and robustness. We maintain established spatial qualities and identities that have usually taken a long time to form, and inscribe flexibility of use as a baseline for design choices.
We apply ecological knowledge to urban design. New constructions should preserve natural resources upon which we base our existence. Built interventions become the basis for establishing new living conditions, both enriching biodiversity and repairing broken or lost ecologies. We design spaces of shelter and food production as integral components of a global web of life. Production sites, forests, agricultural landscapes stand in relationship to new residential neighbourhoods and the existing city.
We design within an intersectional gaze, considering mechanisms of power and marginalisation. Our interest is to create spaces where different groups of people feel included and empowered. A conscious avoidance of prescribed and exclusive ways of using buildings guides us to create sensitive, unfinished spaces, that allow immediate appropriation and future definition by its users over time.
VESNA JOVANOVIĆ
Vesna Jovanović founded Cabineta to develop and test socially inclusive and ecologically responsible interventions in the built environment.
She had worked for several years at Diener & Diener Architects in Basel, where she was responsible for the construction of the hybrid residential building block Îlot B2 in Lyon Confluence. She also took lead on various urban studies and test planning procedures, most notably the Testplanung Klybeckplus and the Settelen site redevelopment, both in Basel, as well as the Testplanung for the V-ZUG industrial site in Zug. Prior to founding Cabineta, she was project lead at Stereo Architects responsible for the co-operative housing development at Walkeweg in Basel.
Currently we have no open positions available. We are however always hapy to receive spontaneous applications at: hr@cabineta.ch
Applications should include a CV, a portfolio (max. 10 MB) and a cover letter. We offer by preference internships for a duration of one year.
ENGAGEMENT & NON-PROFIT WORK
In order to go beyond conventional architectural practice and contribute publicly accessible knowledge on how to engage more sustainably with our built environment, Vesna Jovanović co-founded the legally independent, non-profit association um.bau.grund.bau. The association understands knowledge-sharing as an empowerment tool for people outside the profession. We are convinced that everyone should have the opportunity to participate in shaping their own surroundings.
EXHIBITIONS & EVENTS
Installation «Terra Incognita», together with Studio Céline Baumann, Forum 2050, Swiss Architecture Museum, Basel, 2020
Cultural Events of the collective Schwesterprojekt, founded by Céline Baumann, Anja Haldimann, Vesna Jovanović, Samara Leite Walt, Selina Locher, Laurent Rueff and Yuma Shinohara, Basel, 2018 2019
PUBLICATIONS
«Archipelago of Urban Gardens - What role for small-scale vegetable gardens in the development of sustainable urban landscapes?», Basel, 2024
Booklet & digital publication, Potentials Analysis & Toolkit, together with plankton
«Territory – On the Development of Landscape and City», Park Books, 2016 / Open Access Digital, 2024
Book on urbanisation processes in the hinterlands of cities and their impact on the city, developed within the ETH Studio Basel. Prof. Roger Diener, Prof. Marcel Meili, Prof. Christian Schmid, Christian Müller Inderbitzin, Liisa Gunnarsson, chief editors Vesna Jovanović and Mathias Gunz.
«The “Versatile Monument” Question: Parc de la Vilette as Managed Reality», Paris, 2015 Scientific article for JOLA (Journal of Landscape Architecture), co-written together with Céline Baumann
TEACHING
Guest Professorship, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology
Karlsruhe, 2022 2023
Coordination & Research Lead, ETH MAS UTD
ETH D-ARCH Architecture of Territory, Zürich 2021 2022
We support individuals, entrepreneurs, public authorities and institutions through physical transformation processes that preserve resources and inscribe novel societal added-value.
At the beginning of the building process, we develop feasibility studies and potential analyses, as well as urban and architectural designs. We accompany projects through the tendering and construction phases. For smaller projects, we are also happy to take on construction management or even become directly involved in the building process.
Cabineta Architecture + Urban Research
St. Johanns-Vorstadt 17
CH-4056 Basel, Switzerland info@cabineta.ch