In 1966, the architect and theorist Oswald Mathias Ungers published Grossformen im Wohnungsbau (‘large forms in housing’), a response to the need for large-scale building at the time. The grossform, a new housing typology introduced by Ungers, was defined by both quantitative and qualitative characteristics. Today, the situation appears even more pressing than in the late modernist period. Mass and quantity have become defining issues of the future, as the demand for living space in major European cities continues to rise. Scarcity of land and resources, along with the ongoing climate crisis, shape the architectural discourse and call for new concepts and design approaches.

Against this backdrop, the thesis explores the (neue) grossform – or ‘new large-scale form’ – as a contemporary architectural strategy. The research develops a renewed understanding of the term, moving beyond its purely quantitative definition. By identifying and theorizing contemporary strategies and characteristics, the (neue) grossform is reframed as a concept that speaks to today’s social, environmental, and urban challenges.

This conceptual groundwork culminates in an urban and architectural design proposal for the city of Hanover, the capital of Lower Saxony. Here, the (neue) grossform is tested as an alternative housing model rooted in everyday life and, crucially, in its specific urban context. It operates at the intersection of architectural and urban scale – as an in-between figure that enables both density and openness. The (neue) grossform is not an abstract monument, but a resilient, site-specific structure that can be experienced and inhabited. Ungers addressed the question of scale through the grossform as a formal and compositional answer. Koolhaas embraced scale by letting architecture swell until it replicated the city itself. In contrast, the (neue) grossform emerges from place: it draws legitimacy and quality from context, from the urban fabric, and from the everyday. It relies on spatial and open-ended conditions that allow for appropriation, collectivity, and continuous transformation. The (neue) grossform thus envisions architecture as a common and adaptable framework – grounded, open, and unmistakably urban.