Max Rudolph

Like many innovative start-ups, Form Follows You began as a university spin-off. The three founders, Max Rudolph, Martin Dennemark and Benedikt Wannemacher, met in 2010 while studying in Münster. They followed a similar path until founding the Form Follows You innovation agency eight years later in Berlin: All three initially worked as research assistants at various research institutions in Germany. At the same time, they used the time to test their initial ideas and approaches in collaboration with the Berlin housing industry. Their interest in and passion for digitalisation in urban and neighbourhood planning connects the  three founders’ strong and shapes Form Follows You. As qualified architects, they understand the needs and challenges of planners, project developers and local authorities. The team's solutions focus on areas where digital tools can deliver long-term improvements to planning and processes. More on this from Max Rudolph himself, CEO and partner at Form Follows You:

What is your mission with Form Follows You and what is your vision?

With our "Buildplace” product, we are developing the digital twin for the neighbourhood and urban planning of the future. Buildplace makes it possible to create three-dimensional building mass studies with just a few clicks in a web browser and immediately check these for specific characteristics such as shade, space utilisation, planning density or clearance areas. Our vision is to establish Buildplace as the central assistance system for planners in the local government and the private sector, supporting stakeholders with creating neighbourhood concepts, building mass studies and development plans. Several local authorities are already using our product in their municipal administration. This includes several districts in Berlin.

The HAL Plan is a joint project between Form Follows You and the city of Halle (Saale) and is also a successful model for smart cities. They are building a digital twin for the city. What can it do?

In the development partnership with the city of Halle (Saale), Buildplace serves as the basis for the municipal planning tool HAL-Plan, which combines functions for urban planning, commercial space monitoring and inventory documentation. Currently, more than 60 municipal employee use HAL-Plan for collaborative planning and transparently communicating urban development projects. In addition, the economic development department of the city of Halle (Saale) uses HAL-Plan for managing and monitoring of the city's available properties and commercial space. Via the digital twin, the documented spaces are immediately compared with enquiries from parties interested in settling in the city. At the touch of a button, the system creates finished space and property exposés and updates the space and property characteristics through automatic cross-referencing with corresponding geoinformation. But that is not all: in the project, we utilise agile methods that have proven especially helpful for dynamically advancing the development of HAL-Plan functions in collaboration with users from various departments.

The district of Treptow-Köpenick is one of several municipalities participating in the six-month HAL test phase. What exactly will take place?

As part of the HAL Plan competition, we are working with eleven participating municipalities to test how the platform can be applied to other planning projects. We evaluate both perspectives as well as possible use cases in regular exchanges. Currently, we are halfway through the competition and can already see the first results. The municipalities are actively working on plans on the platform. These include residential development projects, inter-municipal commercial space planning along with a possible visualisation of heat line density. That would serve as a basis for planning local and district heating networks. The competition helps us to document new requirements and and thoroughly test the application in other contexts.”

Which Berlin smart city projects is Form Follows You currently involved in? And where can you "experience" the company in Berlin?

Buildplace is already being actively used by several major players in Berlin. These include the state-owned housing companies, as well as the Spandau and Marzahn-Hellersdorf urban planning offices. In addition, Berliner Immobilienmanagement (BIM) is using the digital planning twin to examine the utilisation and redensification of Berlin's administrative buildings. Another exciting project which we are currently involved in with all state-owned housing companies in Berlin and BIM is currently in progress with the working title "LWU-Map". Here, Buildplace is being used as an infrastructure for collaboration and data exchange. The aim is to combine the spatial data from real estate portfolios and property layouts of the sister companies into a digital twin with  the objecting of identifying synergies, joint action opportunities and contacts more quickly.

What dream project would you like to carry out in Berlin?

The Faster Construction Law (SBG) in Berlin is, of course, particularly exciting for us. Buildplace could play a central role in putting the goals of this package of measures into practice. These include faster procedures, optimised administrative processes along with more efficient collaboration. The digital twin enables feasibility studies, volume studies and neighbourhood and climate analyses to be carried out at an early stage and on an interdisciplinary basis. This creates a common basis for decision-making for all parties involved – from administration to project development – and significantly shortens planning processes.

Form Follows You has been a member of the Smart City Berlin network for several years now. How have your benefited from this partnership to date?

Membership in the Smart City Berlin network is extremely valuable to us. It gives us access, exchange and visibility. These are the key prerequisites for effectively anchoring Buildplace in urban development. The tight-knit network within the city is particularly important to us, especially with stakeholders from Berlin's administrative, political, business and scientific sectors. This not only gives us insights into current developments and discourses but also enables us to reach potential users. We also benefit directly from the network's support – for example, with funding applications or strategic placements. To sum up, our connection to Smart City Berlin strengthens our position as a driver of innovation in Berlin's digital urban planning.

What does the city of the future look like for you?

Our vision for the city of the future is less about flying taxis and autonomous cars, which are certainly an essential part of any vision. Rather, our vision focuses on a city administration that deploys digital tools to simulate and evaluate data-based urban planning and then makes participatory and dynamic decisions. In our city of the future, it only takes a few weeks to prepare a development plan, rather than nine years. In the interim, you can already walk through the digital planning scenario, view the new spaces and gain an initial impression of their qualities with the help of integrated analyses. Planning offices naturally use the digital twin as a data-based analysis and decision-making tool to decide on the Berlin of the future in dynamic processes.

Can you please finish the following sentence: "Berlin is smart because ..."

... it knows how to deploy its players effectively to shape a bright future.