Benno
Helpenstein
Architect

Projects

1. 1

   Bad Salzungen
   2026

   Serial Retrofit Fritz-Wagner-Straße

   Architect & project lead, ecoworks

   Services
   Retrofit concept

   Retrofit concept for a prefabricated panel building with 79 flats: prefabricated timber façade, new balconies, PV for tenant electricity, retrofitted while occupied.

   

   Visualisation: ecoworks

2. 2

   Hamburg
   2020–2022

   Westfield Hamburg-Überseequartier, Building C

   [check role: project lead / architect], Höhler und Partner

   Services
   Work stage 5 (HOAI)

   Detailed design for an office high-rise on the Elbe waterfront: three faceted volumes with a double-skin façade, BIM-based in Revit.

   

   AI-generated visualisation

3. 3

   New York, Aachen
   2017

   Competence Centre for Mobility

   Employed at IParch, detailed design, Studio MDA, in cooperation with IParch

   Services
   Work stage 5 (HOAI)

   New building for teaching and research at FH Aachen with a large lecture hall and atrium. Detailed design with a focus on the interior fit-out.

   

   Visualisation: Studio MDA

4. 4

   [add location]
   2022

   Serial Retrofit DAR

   [add role], ecoworks

   Services
   [add work stages]

   [Draft] Serial retrofit of several three-storey apartment buildings: prefabricated façade elements, added balconies, PV on the roof.

   

   Visualisation: ecoworks

5. 5

   Berlin, Chorin
   2016

   Schinkel and Chorin

   Internship, planning of the exhibition architecture, thegreeneyl, Berlin

   Services
   Detailed design, tendering

   Permanent exhibition at Chorin Abbey on Schinkel's drawings and the beginnings of monument preservation: backlit drawings, sound and a monolithic media showcase.

   

   thegreeneyl

6. 6

   Aachen
   2015

   Textile Concrete Pavilion

   Freelance collaboration, façade and interior design, tendering and construction, IParch, Aachen

   Services
   –

   A workspace for RWTH Aachen students beneath four slender textile-reinforced concrete pylons, with a façade of large-format glass panes.

   

   Benno Helpenstein

7. 7

   Aachen
   2014

   Campus West

   Freelance collaboration, IParch

   Services
   State competition

   NRW State Competition 2014 “Living and Life in the University Quarter”: a sustainable residential quarter next to the future RWTH Campus West.

   

8. 8

   Aachen
   2014

   Volvo Trade Fair Stand, BAUMA Shanghai

   Freelance collaboration, IParch

   Services
   Competition

   Competition entry for the Volvo trade fair stand at BAUMA Shanghai: a rock-like backdrop that places the construction machinery in the setting it was built for.

   

9. 9

   Aachen
   2013

   FEV Office & Workshop Hall

   Freelance collaboration, IParch

   Services
   Competition

   Extension of the FEV site in Aachen with an office complex and workshop halls. A corporate architecture with a red band as its signature.

   

10. 10

    Samedan, Engadine
    2012

    Chesa Astordix

    Internship, responsible for the entire design, steigerconcept, Zurich

    Services
    Preliminary study, design

    Conversion and extension of an Engadine chalet into a multi-family house: a white façade with freely placed windows above a natural stone base.

    

    Photomontage: Benno Helpenstein

11. 11

    Aachen
    2016

    A Cemetery for Data

    University
    Master's thesis, Chair of Building Typology and Chair of Architectural Theory, RWTH Aachen

    Services
    –

    Master's thesis (grade 1.0). A burial ritual for digital data, and an architecture as a machine that performs it.

    

12. 12

    Mönchengladbach-Wickrath
    2014

    Endstation Trinkhalle

    University
    Master's project M1, Chair of Constructive Design, RWTH Aachen

    Services
    –

    Conversion of the vacant Wickrath station into a gateway to the town with a library, brasserie and cinema.

    

13. 13

    Aachen
    2013

    Above the Rooftops of Aachen

    University
    1st prize in the competition “Potentials of Roofscapes for Urban Gardening”, Chair of Landscape Architecture, RWTH Aachen

    Services
    –

    1st prize in the competition “Potentials of Roofscapes for Urban Gardening”: a green cage on the roof of SinnLeffers in Aachen's city centre.