Design Studio Refugee City & DesignBuild Summer School 2015 / 2016
KITCHENHUB
First visit to the future KITCHEN-HUB: the store had stood empty for over ten years, Rote Insel
80.000 refugees arriving to Berlin in 2015 have caught the municipality ill-prepared. The city’s slow and uncoordinated response to this unexpected influx has been the subject of intense debates and critiques. Yet the real challenge - establishing interlacing forms of living together - is still laying ahead. In many cases initiatives of civil engagement are taking over this so-called integration work. As residents groups, volunteer associations or social entrepreneurship models they form an integral part in the system. Realized in a close collaboration between one of these initiatives, Über den Tellerrand and academia the KITCHEN-HUB was established as a transdisciplinary laboratory. Therein we seek to think beyond the narrow and sectoral way of housing refugees. How can living-together work to the advantage of both, new and old neighbours? How can we mobilize new urban actors in order to co-produce more inclusive and socially sustainable neighborhoods? The KITCHEN-HUB is a place for refugees and local residents in Berlin Schöneberg, run by Über den Tellerrand. The design reflects our approach: it is a tool to support the agency of refugees as urban actors. A modular toolkit can flexibly address a multitude of use requirements including cooking classes run by refugees, workshops, discussion rounds or community meetings. People with refugee and non-refugee background cook, eat, work and think together. They create a place of coexistence and mutual exchange, where refugees are not only welcome but become active in shaping urban space. The KITCHEN-HUB was realized in a close collaboration between Habitat Unit, the CoCoon Studio and Über den Tellerrand. It was designed and built during a Summer School in 2015, building on the experiences and outcomes of the Design Studio Refugee City: Cooking with Refugees in Berlin at the Department of Architecture, Technische Universität Berlin.
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Final exhibition of the Design Studio at the Department of Architecture, TU Berlin
Über den Tellerrand, literally translated as ‘Out of the Box’, is a community working for cultural exchange between refugees and locals. The aim of the organization is to build a space and shape an experience where diversity and mutual acceptance is taken for granted. The group started with a culinary initiative in 2013, releasing a cookbook, which contains 21 international recipes collected from refugees during their visits to the refugee camp in Oranienplatz in Berlin.
Über den Tellerrand
After the success of the cookbook, Über den Tellerrand wanted to continue to shift the stereotypical perceptions of refugees; So they started cooking classes led by refugee chefs in different places. Besides the cooking classes, they have organized a variety of community meetings such as football games, communal cooking sessions, and language exchanges. They got in contact with the CoCoon-Studio and Habitat Unit. Together they could develop the idea about establishing a permanent space where their activities could take place on a daily basis: the KITCHEN-HUB. Basic needs take on a substantially different importance when confronted with extreme situations. In the case of refugees, along with coping with a new social context, regularizing a legal status, finding a job, etc., feeding your family and yourself is a pressing need, every day. But cooking and sharing a meal is at the same time a moment for building ties within the family and the community, for cultivating the customs of the land left behind, for restoring body and soul. The Design Studio „Refugees in the City: community kitchens in Berlin“ explored the world of the refugees and asylum seekers in Berlin taking the cultural, social and practical dimensions of shared cooking as a starting point to develop architectural and urban design solutions on variety of scales: Proposals may range from kitchen furniture, communal spaces, the organization of refugee housing and refugee-driven urban economies. The work was based on direct experience with refugee communities and the documentation of their needs.
Design Studio
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First day of the Summer School: the table cloth as a collective piece I metal workshop (right)
Summer School Week 1 / 2
Design
site visits I observing the context I cooking I taking dimensions I material research I division of working groups: master planning, table, shelf, light I consultation with carpenters I sketching I collective breakfast I presentations I model making I neighbourhood event on Rote Insel
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Wood workshop in the studio space I finished tables (right)
Summer School Week 3 - 5
Build
Detailed planning I material lists I spontanious presentations I budget calculation I prototypes I setting up the workshop space I oiling I assembling I bergfest I painting patterns I shopping I welding I cutting&bending metal I sanding I cleaning up I discussing I handing over
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The KITCHEN-HUB Storefront, Rote Insel
One big table
wc
office
office
facade of the corner house at Rossbachstraße / Gotenstraße with the salesroom in the ground floor, providing a prominent address and big show windows to both streets
storage
wc
gastro kitchen
co-working
(re)arranging
cooking
gathering
eating
planned structure of uses in the headquarter of Über den Tellerand
cleaning
possible arrangements and space definitions of the table as a prop
8 Conceptual floorplan; Authors: Theodora Constantin, Judith Schiebel, Vanessa Vogel
community table
scale 1:3
Decoration of cookies and cake
Modular Toolkit
1 Toolkit shelf 2 Mobile cooking 3 Fixed part 4 Standing height 5 Sitting height 6 Carpet height
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Community meeting I cooking class (right)
Modular Toolkit
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Workshop I flexible usage (right)
Modular Toolkit
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Workshop I Grand opening (right)
Team: Anas Alahdab, Theodora Constantin, Christiane Delucchi, Rania Elkalla, Ghaith Henki, Nidal Jalouk, Aram Lee, Paula Lipsanen, Asmaa Akram Adodou Mohamed, Farouq Qattan, Lisa Reis, Judith Schiebel, Stella Sommer, Vanessa Vogel
Collaborating experts: R316; Imke Grzemba, Karl Woitke Werkstätten des IfA; Heiko Rehage Jan Gehling
Habitat Unit - Chair of International Urbanism and Design Prof. Dr. Philipp Misselwitz, Renato D‘Alençon, Nina Pawlicki
Picture Credits: Laura Fiorio p. - 1 / 12 (Nina Pawlicki); p. 9 (Simon Colwill) p. 15 (Iona Dutz); p. 17 (Valerie Lillibeth)
CoCoon - contextual construction Nina Pawlicki, Ursula Hartig, Simon Colwill Über den Tellerrand Rafael Strasser
Donations and Funding:
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Editors: Nina Pawlicki, Aram Lee, Anne-Florence Seele
Contact: Nina Pawlicki n.pawlicki@cocoon-studio.de
The collaboration is going on: Inselgarten May 2016
A collaboration between: Über den Tellerrand e.V. www.überdentellerrand.org Technische Universität Berlin Institut für Architektur Habitat Unit Chair of International Urbanism and Design www.habitat-unit.de CoCoon - Studio www.cocoon-studio.de