project: refurbishment of Nord Stream 2  year: 2022, type: open project program: capsule hotel, cultural centre, walk of freedom, language school, working spaces area: 215.000 m2, architecture: Opposite Office team: Benedikt Hartl, Thomas Haseneder model: Vincent Kern,  Leon Wipfler,  location: Nord Stream 2, Lubmin, Germany

The „Nord Stream“ Baltic Sea pipeline has been transporting natural gas from Russia to Germany since 2011. Now the billion-dollar project „Nord Stream 2“ has also been completed. The project has always been controversial as it makes Europe even more dependent on Russia and relies on fossil fuels in times of climate change. Despite Putin's great power fantasies, the annexation of Crimea and the poisoning and imprisonment of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, German economy and politics stuck to the project. The pipeline is declared as a "private-sector project", although it has long been a political issue.

Since Russia's war against Ukraine, German government has stopped approving the project for the time being. But gas is still flowing through „Nord Stream 1“. 

After Russia's invasion of Ukraine, which violated international law, the West relied on sanctions. In order to become independent of autocratic states in the long term and to implement the energy transition to renewable energies in Germany, it is important that „Nord Stream“ is stopped completely. Therefore, Opposite Office was commissioned to design an alternative concept for the Baltic Sea pipeline. The site of the German landing station in Lubmin near Greifswald is being repurposed and transformed into a center for international understanding. The pipes that have already been laid will be taken out of the sea and used as building material for „Nord Stream 3“. „Nord Stream 3“ is a program of the German Federal Government for peace and international understanding. The 1,153m diameter pipes will be converted into a 194-sleeping capsule hotel. These 194 bunks are randomly raffled off to people around the world every month, so that every country can occupy one bunk. This month-long residency, which is free to all, aims to bring together people from all over the world; from all classes, cultures, religions and nations. This creates an intercultural exchange that enables personal friendships and breaks down prejudices. On the now unused site of the German landing station, buildings are being converted into a large assembly hall for discussion groups, a foreign language school, workshops, galleries and cultural meeting places. The aim is to create space for an exchange of interests and mutual input from the citizens of the world community. In the discussion of climate, social, health and economic policy issues, the participants bring their ideas, values ​​and maxims for action, negotiate them at equals and thus bring new implications, inspiration and impulses to their countries of origin. At the level of civil society, transformations can be made possible and shaped from below, supported by an international, multicultural process of exchange, networking and cooperation. Instead of a gathering of top diplomats and heads of states at the United Nations, a general assembly of the common people, the citizens of this world, is meeting at „Nord Stream 3“.