What does the future of the piazza look like in Germany?
On 26 June, as part of the Premio Berlino Residence Award, Maria Giada Di Baldassarre will present her work on both Heilbronn's Innovation Park Artificial Intelligence (IPAI) and the Berlin Squarescape research. First assessing how the piazza at IPAI can become the heart of the campus, Maria will explain how it can become a space that is at once iconic, vibrant, and sustainable. With Berlin Squarescape, Maria has undertaken an unconventional exploration of twelve of the capital's districts, ranging from Charlottenburg-Wilmesdorf to Tempelhof-Schöneberg. Incorporating comparisons of public space use in Germany and Italy, the research will consider how co-design can be used as an innovative way to regenerate and activate squares.
Following this presentation, Jasmin Dieterle-Proesel will join Maria on a panel alongside Beatrice Mazzucco and Jaime Herraiz Martínez of Kéré Architecture, in which they'll more broadly explore this topic, together with Beatrice's research on homelessness and space.
Maria Giada Di Baldassarre is an architect, engineer and PhD. She graduated with honours in Building Engineering-Architecture (2018), earned a Master’s in the Design of Buildings for Worship (2019) and completed a joint PhD in Architectural and Urban Design (2022) between the Università Politecnica delle Marche and Leibniz University of Hannover. Alongside her work with architecture studios, she focuses on research into the regeneration of built heritage at various scales. In 2025, she was awarded the Premio Berlino and collaborated with MVRDV in Berlin, exploring the concept of the piazza.
Jasmin Dieterle-Proesel is an architect and project manager at MVRDV. She works on projects of different scales and typologies with a focus on urban integration and social connectivity, such as Kool Kiel und IPAI, an innovation park of artificial intelligence in Heilbronn. Within the Berlin satellite of MVRDV she coordinates international planning teams between Berlin and Rotterdam.
- Date & Time: 26 June, from 19:00 CET
- Location: Aedes, Christinenstr. 18–19, 10119 Berlin
- More information on the event can be found here