b(e) ware

project type: documentary

format: shortfilm

status: work in progress

year: 2024 - present

location: Berlin, DE

team: angelina thierer & nicolás gómez herrera

This short film was produced within Reallabor B(e) Ware, a pilot project of the TU Berlin’s Natural Building Lab dedicated to rethinking resources in the construction sector. In Germany, building and demolition account for more than half of national waste and nearly 40% of CO₂ emissions. B(e) Ware responds to this reality by developing strategies to reintegrate discarded materials—above all local timber—into the value chain of architecture.

Our contribution to the project is a film that shifts perspective: instead of portraying wood as mere material, it treats it as subject. Using macro lenses, the camera observes wood at close range, following its passage through a series of careful interventions. Each step – cleaning, cutting, sanding – makes visible the attention and precision required to bring back its strength.

What begins as a piece marked by age and use slowly transforms, until its surface appears renewed. Through this process, the film highlights the resilience of wood, and demonstrates its potential as a building resource for Berlin’s future.

By focusing on a single element and giving space to its transformation, the film resonates with the larger aim of B(e) Ware: to challenge perceptions of “waste” and show how secondary materials can become a foundation for new architectural practices.

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