In 2018, Situation Room, together with Diego Vivanco, undertook an artistic research project exploring how prefabricated housing blocks from the former German Democratic Republic (GDR) were dismantled and reused. Under the title Bis wir am Hang verharren jetzt und lassen die Steine zu Tal, the project resulted in a three-part installation in Plauen and an accompanying publication, examining how GDR architecture is handled and valued, both socially and materially.

The installation Es duftet nach Frühling (It Smells Like Spring) revisits the questions first explored in this research: the recycling of building materials, material cycles, and the transformation of prefabricated housing estates in eastern Germany. In the late 1990s, Dutch flower companies delivering to Germany used their return journeys to transport salvaged precast concrete elements back to the Netherlands. At a time when dismantling usually meant demolition without reuse, these elements found new uses, among other things in agriculture. In light of ongoing debates about resource scarcity and how to deal with existing building structures, these early examples of reuse seem strikingly relevant today.

The installation drew on the connection between the flower trade and the transport of concrete elements. On the final day of the exhibition, visitors were invited to arrange the flowers on display into bouquets and take them home.