holz ziegel lehm

project type: documentary

format: shortfilm

status: work in progress

year: 2024 - present

location: Berlin, DE

team: angelina thierer, nicolás gómez herrera & benjamin thiel

This documentary follows the pilot project Holz Ziegel Lehm , led by ZRS Architekten and Bruno Fioretti Marquez in Berlin-Britz. The project consists of two identical residential buildings, one built in timber, the other in brick, designed to test the potentials of sustainable multi-storey housing. Developed under real laboratory conditions, it investigates how low-tech construction with renewable and climate-responsive materials can reduce emissions, limit technical systems, and improve indoor climate in affordable housing.

Over more than a year, we closely accompanied the construction process. The film observes how two buildings of the same size and layout evolve through different material logics: the modular lightness of wood construction on one side, and the solidity of monolithic brick on the other. In both, clay plaster plays a key role in regulating interior climate.

Our approach was to record the process with precision and continuity, capturing not only the technical steps but also the atmosphere of a construction site where research and practice meet. By comparing these “twin buildings,” the film reveals how material choices shape construction, labor, and future ways of inhabiting.

Currently in the final months of shooting, the documentary is expected to be released at the end of 2025.

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