Leonard von Brenndorff (he/him, b. 1994) is a spatial practitioner based in Germany. His practice engages with landscapes and sites shaped by infrastructural intervention and reads them as spaces where memory and belonging are produced, contested, and displaced. With a background in carpentry, his relation to materiality unfolds through an ongoing unlearning of industrialized modes of extraction and production. Through narrative, historical inquiry, and technical analysis, he examines how forms of control are sedimented in spaces. Grounded in embodied experiences of collective inhabitation and close proximity to the sites he investigates, his work asks how to hold on to those places marked by damage, proclaimed inevitability, and unsettled responsibilities.
Leonard von Brenndorff is currently studying at Sandberg Instituut, Amsterdam with the department Studio for Immediate Spaces. Trained as a professional carpenter in Bavaria, he earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Cologne in 2022. His work has been showcased in venues such as MAKK (Museum of Applied Arts Cologne) and San Gimignano Lichtenberg for CONCEPTUAL Biennale Berlin. His accolades include the Kölner Design Preis 2022, Cartes Blanches of PASSAGEN 2024, and a scholarship from Kölner Gymnasial- und Stiftungsfonds.
Exhibitions
2025 CONCEPTUAL Biennale Berlin, San Gimignano Lichtenberg
2025 ONE First Year Show, Studio for Immediate Spaces, Sandberg Instituut
2024 NO-SOLO SHOW/ Passagen 24, CARTES BLANCHES
2023 Passagen, Interior Design Week Köln
2023 Artbay, Kunsthalle Lindenthal
2023 Funk Magazin, Raum für unabhängige Magazine
2022 NOPLACE - progressive working community and interdisciplinary open space, Kölner Design Preis, MAKK
2020 Exibition Design + We Are Strong - Kölnberg, Ökorausch, MAKK
Awards
2022 Award Winner Kölner Design Preis
2022 Final 300 iF Design Young Talent Award
2022 Prüfungswettbewerb BA Sustainable Design
2020 Auszeichnung Ausstellungsarchitektur Ökorausch Think Tank