Biography
Oliver’s practice, research and teaching focuses on urban housing typology and design research for future urban habitation, sustainable design and urban revitalization. He is publisher of the ‘Floor Plan Manual Housing’ with F. Schneider, a globally established seminal work on innovative housing typology and is also editor-in-chief of the web-database ‘Building Types Online’, both published by Birkhauser.
The research of his ‘Urban Housing Lab’ concentrates on socially and environmentally sustainable urban housing, with concepts for vertical communality and flexibility for shifting demographics and new diverse and inclusive forms of co-habitation; beyond the hermetic socio-spatial conceptions of the ‘unit’. The research has also informed the cross-disciplinary, international ‘Future Urban Habitation Symposium’ he has curated at the National Design Centre Singapore in 2019, discussing the themes ‘High-Dense Typologies for Building Community’, ‘Inclusive Urbanism’, ‘Adaptable & Responsive Habitation’ and ‘New Tools, New Approaches’.
Oliver’s projects also cover sustainable design on aspects like climate-responsive layouts and environmentally-conscious materiality and construction systems, that also include developing tools for informed decision-making. These fields have been awarded with the Singapore-Good-Design Award in 2017 and 2019 and the Arup-Global-Research Challenge 2019.
Oliver graduated from the University of the Arts Berlin, Germany, and the Bartlett School, University College London, and is a registered architect at the Chamber of Architects Berlin. His practice focused, next to revitalization and adaptive-reuse projects, predominantly on innovative residential architecture, including participatory and flexible design and multi-generational dwellings.
Oliver is currently an Assistant Professor at the Architecture & Sustainable Design pillar of Singapore University of Technology and Design, where he led the Architecture Core Studio ‘Urban Living’, ran the course ‘Urban Housing Typologies’ and curated Sustainable Design Option Studios such as ‘Jalan Kukoh Transformers’ and ‘Future Generic’.
Education
- M.Arch (Dipl.Ing.Arch) University of the Arts UdK Berlin
- Diploma of Architecture Bartlett School of Architecture and Planning, UCL London
- BArch, Technical University Berlin
Research Interests
- Housing Typology
- Future Urban Habitation Design & Research
- Design for Shifting Demographics and Future Communality
- Sustainable Design and Construction
- Climate Responsive Design
- Adaptive Re-Use / Urban Revitalization
Key Publications
- Floor Plan Manual Housing
Fifth, Revised and Expanded Edition, 2017
Birkhäuser Publishers, Berlin BaselEditor & AuthorOliver Heckmann,
with Friederike Schneider (Birkhäuser 2017) - ‘Building Types Online’
Online Database, Launch 2016
Birkhäuser Publishers, Berlin Basel
https://www.degruyter.com/view/db/bdt
Editor-in-Chief: Oliver Heckmann
