Four years after being founded, ATP’s office in Hamburg has grown from a two-person startup team into a strong integrated design office with over 60 employees that is structured in line with the ATP standard. From the very start, we have ambitiously participated in major and highly-complex architecture competitions and successfully planned concepts for laboratories, office headquarters, and the refunctioning of existing buildings. As a small, young team with modest resources, we faced considerable challenges – and this experience shaped our office culture for the long term.

As we are able to turn to the technical expertise and support of our colleagues across the broad ATP network, we adopted our own approach – which is far removed from the design process in a classic master-led studio – in order to maximize our ability to benefit from the energy of our agile team. Our D+R Group positioned itself as a hub for innovative ideas, as an “architectural foundry,” where everything is open to question and ideas can fly like sparks.

With a constant focus on maximum design quality, we were fully aware of the risk of potential diversions and blind alleys that could cost us time and resources. This is why we chose the particularly rigorous approach of “Design Thinking.” This “ideas sieve” for the best design is a systematic problem-solving process that helps us to organize our thoughts more rapidly and achieve even better results.

The rigor of the method
Design Thinking promises practical and human-oriented solutions that are developed in an iterative process. In order to learn this method, we first visualized our design process and then carried out this process in workshops before analyzing, questioning, and redefining it with the entire team. Unusually, our design process doesn’t begin with a clear definition of the task. This is why we have to work iteratively: Cycles in which design ideas are systematically tested, rejected, or optimized, can be used both at the largest scale and for detailed aspects of a project. This is how we see if the design concept works. We continuously control our approach and findings via the output of the workshops. Besides its efficiency, the great advantages of Design Thinking are the ways in which not only the entire team can see the growing benefits of the process but also the creativity of each individual can flow into the end result.

Learning as an opportunity
Integrated design at ATP architects engineers is committed to architectural excellence and functional perfection. In principle, this applies to the entire early development process of a design, although we also invest extra time at this stage in order to allow the unconventional to emerge. And, rather than regarding obstacles negatively, Design Thinking integrates them into the debate and sees them as opportunities for innovation. For example, if we lose a competition, we take advantage of the related learning effect and carefully consider what we could have done otherwise or better. This is the final, but extremely important, loop in the process of design thinking. It shows us what was missing from a concept or highlights the potential that we failed to recognize. Hence, by sharing our thoughts with our colleagues from other offices we can both exchange experiences and develop and further refine ATP-specific design approaches. This dynamic culture of learning from mistakes is very important to us.

Flexibility in the design
In my opinion, Design Thinking is particularly appropriate as a way of enabling ATP to design successfully – for several reasons: Rather than just being a top-down method it is rooted in the talent and commitment of every member of the team. As all of us at ATP design interdisciplinarily and as equal partners, the potential for internal knowledge growth is huge. There is a reason why our network of over 1,700 architects and engineers is described as a “learning organization.” Design Thinking is transparently comprehensible and enables us to take decisions together. The iterative approach also helps us to swiftly and professionally respond to the changing requirements with which we are often faced. In other words, innovation is pre-programmed.

A bonfire of “out of the box” ideas
When we use Design Thinking in the design process, we open the door for thinking freely. This sets the course for innovation and sustainability. For example, in 2023 we took part in the competition for the new Elbinseln Mobility Hub. The requirement was for a multifunctional project on a compact downtown site that would bring together an interchange on Hamburg’s elevated railway, a bus depot for the e-mobility revolution, and a range of commercial and local retail facilities. We developed an ambitious architectural response to this mix of uses in which we employed novel building typologies as a way of optimizing the added value for local residents. The project earned us second place.

Apropos added value: Design Thinking offers us the potential to develop innovative solutions both here in Hamburg and across the North of Germany. The specific challenges of the region, such as how to deal with existing buildings, mobility, renewable energy, and the design of inclusive public spaces require iterative intelligence and free thinking, in order to counter the complexity of these subjects – combined with expertise and a willingness to cooperate.

Free thinking versus rigor
The meritocracy – the favoring of the best talents – that is intrinsic to Design Thinking is often seen as the ideal basis of a strong design team. At ATP Hamburg, we see this somewhat differently. In order to be successful, this method must be pursued as long as strictly necessary. The approach of the Project Leader is essential here, because it is their job to recognize the quality of the design ideas that are developed jointly by the team while also allowing all these ideas to flow equally into the design process and to be assessed using objective parameters. Only those ideas that best meet the requirements are then pursued further in the development of tailored solutions.

In order to implement Design Thinking in our Design & Research Studios over the long term and to avoid slipping back into the previous linear structures, we have to ensure that there is open dialogue and mutual trust between all participants. We practice this every day, including in the ATP Campus, our training hub, whose generous and open communication zones offer an ideal space for creative cooperation. Here, we can test our ideas as prototypes before pursuing them further or rejecting them. In future, artificial intelligence will also be an issue in Design Thinking. Today, we are still only using it as a means of speeding up certain processes or as a source of inspiration. However, it will be fascinating to see how we can integrate AI further into our day-to-day activities, how much of our work AI will eventually be able to carry out, and how we will use the time that AI saves us.