forty five degrees is a studio of architects and designers. In our practice, space-making is about resources, not only material or financial but the intangible resources of human and more-than-human knowledge.
At forty five degrees, our work investigates the built environment through research, design, and artistic experimentation across scales, examining its physical, social, and economic entanglements. Our work embraces collective approaches and alternative models of living and city-making, aiming to develop new spatial paradigms. Through a careful use of scale, material, and design language, we strive to create inclusive and accessible spaces. As architects, researchers, and educators, we operate through an interdisciplinary lens and approach architecture as a multimedia, curatorial, and world-making practice grounded in immersive research, embodied rituals, and publishing as a critical tool.
By diving into the field of expanded architecture, we practice it while collaborating with cultural institutions and creative agencies in Germany and abroad. Our projects have been supported by international institutions such as the Allianz Foundation, Goethe-Institut, PERSPEKTIVE – Fund for Contemporary Art and Architecture, and Akademie Schloss Solitude. We have also worked with KW Institute for Contemporary Art, the European Commission’s S+T+ARTS program, Floating University, and a Horizon Europe research project, among others.
In 2023, forty five degrees were recognized among ArchDaily’s Best Practices and received the Inspire Future Generations Award from the Thornton Education Trust in London. In 2024, the team won first prize in the IBA’27 competition for Neues Wohnen für Korber Höhe in Stuttgart, in collaboration with fatkoehl architects and atelier le balto. In 2026, the studio has been commissioned by the City of Braunschweig to design the urban development of the Am Lehmanger Zobel site, in collaboration with fatkoehl architects.
Alkistis Thomidou, Berta Gutiérrez, and Giulia Domeniconi are founding members of the studio. Since 2023, Alkistis and Berta have been the core team, which takes on different configurations to adapt to each project’s scope and forms multidisciplinary collaborations with other experts worldwide. forty five degrees operates as a GbR, a partnership under the German Civil Code.
team
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Alkistis Thomidou
+alkistis@forty-five-degrees.com
Alkistis is an architect, researcher, and educator working at the intersection of design, urban studies, and critical spatial practice. Her work investigates hybrid spatial and organizational typologies, spatial agency as collective authorship, and knowledge production. She has taught at Leibniz University Hannover and TU Braunschweig, served as a design critic and guest lecturer at several universities, and collaborated with KW Institute for Contemporary Art in Berlin on youth education and mediation programs. She studied architecture at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and holds a Master of Advanced Studies in Urban Design from ETH Zurich. She has been a fellow at Akademie Schloss Solitude and the Institute for Spatial Experiments at the Berlin University of the Arts, where she engaged in artistic research. Currently, she is a research associate at HafenCity University Hamburg in the DFG-funded project Inconspicuous Transformations (2025–2027), which examines precarious and often invisible housing markets across Europe amid ongoing social and economic crises. Since 2025, she has been a member of the Architects’ Chamber in Berlin.
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Berta Gutiérrez Casaos
+Berta Gutiérrez is an architect, curator, and researcher whose work operates at the intersection of spatial practice, the arts, and design cultures. Drawing on interdisciplinary methodologies, her work revolves around the notion of expanded architecture, investigating the political and ecosocial dimensions of the built environment. Berta has contributed to leading institutions in various capacities and advisory roles, including TBA21–Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary, Matadero Madrid, Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, the Public Art Agency of Sweden, and the European Commission’s S+T+ARTS program. Her work has been shown in institutions across geographies, such as the Venice Architecture Biennale (2018) and the Centro de Arte Dos de Mayo CA2M (2024). With a strong commitment to education, Berta has lectured and led programs at institutions such as the Polytechnic University of Madrid, the University of Fine Arts and Architecture Berlin, and she founded the research department at Rosan Bosch Studio in Copenhagen. Her work consistently bridges disciplines to create responsive frameworks for spatial transformation, advocating for architecture as a means of social emancipation.
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Current Collaborators
+fatkoehl architekten is a Berlin-based architecture office focused on the potential for experimental models of architectural development.
rosario works as an architect, curator, editor and educator at the intersection of critical spatial practices, site-based pedagogy, and ethics of care.
Giulia Domeniconi
Giulia is an Italian architect and designer based in Berlin, working primarily in the field of contemporary art.
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Former Collaborators
+Luna Bongers
Ninon Esclangon
Marleene Hahn
Lea Hobson
Carolina Contreras Alvarez
Eirini Rossolatou
