2. Questions
Berlin is a city of empty spaces from bombings and the deconstruction
of the wall. The voids in Berlin – a characteristic that inspired Oswald
Mathias Ungers’ “Berlin as the Green Archipelago” – have now, within increasing
population, become the focal points of densification and new urban speculation.
Cooperative building projects are built in the vacant spaces, and the concept
of void or openness is integrated into projects as common or programmed spaces.
Here are my fundamental questions for the research.
(1)
Is the common space within collective
housing strategies in Berlin capable of realizing architects’ broader
socio-spatial visions?
(2)
Why do cooperative housing models emerge within the contemporary
urban-political constellation in Berlin?
To understand any architectural model,
the people’s ideas of the project must be studied (not only the architects, but
also the participants), the medium of transitioning into the building (participatory
design process), and the predicted project (structure and social
relationships). If we follow these three steps – idea, medium, and outcome – we
can trace the evolution of projects.
(3) What
are the design concepts, processes, and resulting spatial/social conditions of
the cooperative housing projects?
(4) The transition to free market
capitalism creates, as Strom and Mayer argue, “a new set of winners and
losers.”[i]
The recent controversy over the development project Mediaspree and the
expiration of rent controls at Kottbusser Tor in Berlin create new social
unrest, where community members reacted to new projects and rising rent to stay
in the city. Some protest even reacted directly to a Baugruppe project near the
Spree.[ii]
This raises another set of questions: (4) How
do architects conceptualize their impact on the city’s urban transformation:
increasing market prices, beautification, social improvement – versus
– rising rents, displacement, or gentrification?[iii]
(5) If
cooperative housing projects produce the antithesis of their vision, how could the
model be applied to a broader population of vulnerable communities threatened
by displacement?
(6) Does
the material form of space or the economic contract between participants
provide a more valuable strategy to realize the cooperative architectural
vision?
I want
to challenge whether we can go beyond an ambivalent assumption of the success
of architectural form. Can we be sure of
its effect upon people or the urban?
[i] Elizabeth Strom and Margit Mayer, "The New
Berlin," (German Politics and Society, 16/4, pp. 122-139, 1998), page 1.
[ii] For instance, see Karla Pappel: Initiative gegen
Mietpreiserhöhungen und Verdrängung Alt-Treptow:
http://karlapappel.wordpress.com/baugruppen/
[iii] The linguistic use of the word gentrification outlined
very clearly here: Matthias Bernt and Andrej Holm 'Is it, or is not? The
conceptualisation of gentrification and displacement and its political
implications in the case of Berlin-Prenzlauer Berg',City, 2009, 13:2,312 — 324
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