News & insights

In Episode 9 of The Constructivist, Wulf von Borzyskowski speaks with Axel Gedaschko, President of GdW, Germany’s housing and real estate industry federation, about the limits of refurbishment, the barriers to new housing and the role of digitalisation, robotics and AI. Gedaschko brings the perspective of housing providers managing existing homes: they do not depend on new construction to sustain their business, yet many want to build more than current conditions allow.

The conversation starts with the buildings already standing. Gedaschko describes post-war housing with small, inflexible layouts and limited scope to improve accessibility. His argument is not for indiscriminate demolition, but for assessing each building individually. He also considers how reusing components could preserve the resources and energy already invested in them, and why standardised construction need not mean identical architecture. Berlin’s varied late-19th-century façades, often built around repeating structures, offer one example.

Planning delays are another focus. Gedaschko recounts a housing project in Emden held up by a demolition approval and asks who represents the people still looking for a home. The discussion ends with three wishes for the industry: connect digitalisation, robotics and AI, combine repeatable construction with architectural variety, and start the dialogue between housing providers and the construction industry earlier.

Axel Gedaschko has been President of GdW since 1 February 2011. A qualified lawyer, he previously served as District Administrator of Harburg. He was appointed a State Secretary in Hamburg in 2006 and became Senator for Urban Development and the Environment in 2007. In 2008, he became Hamburg’s Senator for Economic Affairs.