The Frankfurt-based architecture firm Stefan Forster Architekten (SFA)
has from its founding in 1989 maintained a special focus on housing.
They made their name in the years following Germany's reunification,
when dozens of prefabricated plattenbauten in the former GDR needed
refurbishment and modernization. Rather than demolishing and rebuilding
housing structures, SFA carefully adjusted existing buildings to the new
needs of fewer people and more humanness in the shrinking cities of the
newly formed federal states in the reunited country's east.
Since then, SFA have moved on, exploring the topic of housing in
increasingly dense metropolitan environments and creating a remarkable
and manifold body of work in this field. Their designs comprise
large-scale public multi-unit blocs, townhouses, at times by way of
transforming former office and public administration buildings. Stefan
Forster Architekten, the firm's first-ever monograph, features thirty
designs that exemplify SFA's approach and philosophy and highlights how
the firm has continuously worked on raising the standards of residential
architecture.