Partners and Allies

Over 25 years, JSWD Architekten has built an impressive legacy across Germany and Europe. Not through isolated architectural gestures, but by composing ensembles that engage deeply with their urban contexts and the people who inhabit them. Building on their origins in teaching and practice, and echoing Volkwin Marg’s characterization of them as “holistic master builders,” the firm consistently demonstrates that architecture and urban design must be understood as parts of a larger whole.

In the projects presented in this volume — from the Neue Mitte in Porz to the Rathaus Steinweg and Janshof in Brühl, and the Elbinseln mobility hub in Hamburg — JSWD’s work reveals an enduring dedication to spatial clarity, human scale, and the orchestration of public life. Their approach resonates with the belief that architecture without landscape is incomplete, and that the true discipline of building is inseparable from the shaping of cities themselves.

This conviction is one that LAND shares and embraces. As we have collaborated over the years — from the Illumina Headquarters in Bologna to Thyssenkrupp Quartier in Essen and the more recent Haroldstraße 5 project in Düsseldorf — we have found in JSWD a partner committed to the integration of built form and open space, architecture and landscape. Together, we have explored how ecological imperatives, cultural narratives, and social responsibility can inform design at every scale.

The preface reflects on a critical shift underway in design practice: from a primacy of unbounded urban expansion to a new urbanism rooted in landscape — one in which nature becomes an active collaborator in shaping hybrid spaces that blend building and wilderness, public realm and habitat. This is the future of architectural and urban practice: a symbiosis of culture and nature, grounded in ethical conviction and realized through collaborative work.

JSWD’s contribution to the built environment stands as a model for this integrated vision, and it is with great respect and shared purpose that we celebrate their 25-year milestone.