Re-Appropriating Modernist Housing, Mehringplatz, Berlin

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RE-APPROPRIATING MODERNIST HOUSING

CONTINUITY OF URBAN SPACE MEHRINGPLATZ - BERLIN

MUHAMMAD AL HUDA MA Urban Design Sheffield School of Architecture

University of Sheffield


Our project is located in Mehringplatz Berlin which we can see both urban structure and suburban characteristics in this area. Through analysis of the Mehringplatz potentials, we aim to bring it to be an urban place which has more vitality, considering the uses of people from nearby and outside of Mehringplatz. Focusing in the physical shape of the space, the project superposes different layers of landscape, works with different forms of continuities and connections. Two axes are emphasized: North-South (transpassing the river and connecting the center with the city outside the baroque walls) and West-East (through a linear park attached to an existing green spaces' system).


CONTENTS Background Methodology Position Context & Analysis Key Stakeholders Spatial Design Strategy Critical Reflection


BERLIN COMPARED TO GERMANY Source : Urban Age Summit Berlin, November 2006

GDP/Capita € 23,400 200%

150%

Unemployment 19%

Today the population of Berlin stands at approximately 3.4 million. During the last century, Berlin’s growth, relative to other large European cities like London, has been fairly slow. In fact Berlin presents an anomaly in a world ofcities that are rapidly expanding. By the end of the 20th century, the city’s population showed a mere 72% increase from its level in 1900. Even more striking, in the past decade of increased investments to Berlin there was a population decline of 1.5%. At € 23,354 per capita, Berlin’s Gross City Product is substantial. Yet this, the largest city in Germany, has only a 3.5% share of the country’s GDP and a limited centrality within the German economy. The city’s embattled public finances complicate its economic recovery and limit its employment and development policies. Berlin covers approximately 892 square kilometres, stretching out along the Spree River and its plateaus. In Berlin, open space has not been an afterthought to city planning; open and recreational space accounts for 45% of the city’s surface. The gross residential density of Berlin is about 3,800 people per sqkm.

BACKGROUND

Source : Urban Age Summit Berlin, November 2006

100%

One person households 50.7% GERMANY

50%

Foreign born 13.70%

Car ownership 303/1,000 people

TRANSPORT AND MOBILITY Source : Urban Age Summit Berlin, November 2006

38%

27%

SITE POJECT: MEHRINGPLATZ

25%

SOCIAL HELP RECEIPENTS Source : Senate Departement of Urban Development (Urban Age Summit Berlin, November 2006)

10%

N Reinickendorf

Pankow

“Berlin’s U- and S-Bahn system extends over 396 km within the city.”

Lichtenberg

Spandau Mitte

CharlottenburgWilmersdorf

MarzahnHellersdorf

FriedrichshainKreuzberg

TempelhofSchöneberg Treptow-Köpenick

Steglitz-Zehlendorf Neukölln

previlage area average disadvantage area severely disadvantage area

HOUSING & URBAN NEIGHBOURHOODS: DENSITY Source : Urban Age Summit Berlin, November 2006 0

10

25

100


TRANSPORTATION NETWORK

Berlin Tegel Airport (City’s main Intl. Airport)

TRANSPORTATION NETWORK

1902 Hallesche-Tor-Brücke and U-Bahn

For Mehringplatz Residents

For Traveller/Tourist ± 8 min ± 13 min

Reinickendorfer Str.

Ausländerbehörde Berlin Foreigners Registration Office

Friedrichstr.

Bahnhof Zoologischer Garten Westkreuz ± 3 min

± 5 min

Alexanderplatz

Police station

± 3 min Stadtmitte

± 3 min

± 3 min

MEHRINGPLATZ

Kindergarten

± 10 min

± 5 min

± 17 min

Warschauer Str. ± 3 min

Baerwaldbrücke

Ostkreuz

Primary school 6 min

Potsdamer Platz ± 3 min

10 min

± 10 min

Friedrichstr.

6 min

± 2 min Hauptbahnhof (Berlin Central Station)

± 7 min

± 11 min Hallesches Tor

1940

Mehringplatz 5 min

Berliner Brückentour m

Tempelhof

Mosque

Hallesches Tor

13 min

± 13 min

13 min

5

Oberschule

integrated secondary school

± 15 min

Public swimming pool

in

The 3 hour bridge tour on the Spree and Landwehr canal

± 7 min

Warschauer Straße

Prinzenstr. 3 min

Bürgersamt citizen centre

± 34 min

Tempelhof Park

1953

TIMELINE

Berlin Schönefeld Airport (Airport for budget European Flight)

Daily Timeline

Weekly Timeline

Annual Timeline

12.30 am Beginning of night buses

day Satur

Jewish Museum is open everyday

Muslim’s New Year in 2015-2016

Street Market

1705 first bridge is built where today is Hallesche-Tor-Brücke

b Fe

Jan

Ma

p

y

Se

Summer School Holiday

1946 Belle-Aliance-Platz renamed to “FranzMehring-Platz”

1815 “Rondel” was renamed to “Belle-Aliance-Platz”

Kinderkarneval der Kulturen Karneval der Kulturen

1901 Opening of the first U-Bahn’s line: U1 (incl. Hallescher Tor)

1930 Opening of the U6 U-Bahn’s line in Hallescher Tor

1920 1914-18 World War I

1930 1933 Adolf Hitler becomes chancellor of Germany

1940 1939-45 World War II

2003 40% of Galilei Primary School’s children went to Gymnasium

1949 Hallesche-Tor-Brücke was reformed after severe damage in 1945

1960

2015 Competition to 2005 design free spaces in Mehringplatz entered Mehringplatz in the Quartiersmanagement program

1974 Belle-Alliance-Brücke has its name changed to Hallesche-Tor-Brücke

1959-62 Competition to rebuild Mehringplatz won by Hans Scharoun

1950

2001

Ramadhan in 2015 - 2016

1999 Start of the program “Socially Integrative City” in Berlin

1947 Name shortened to “Mehringplatz”

1874 construction of the stone bridge, similar to the actual one

1910

Apr

Thursday

HISTORICAL TIMELINE

1900

Oct

Friday Prayer

Midday Muslim Prayer

1800

Ma

v

n Ju

Quartiersmanagement available for appointments (different times)

Octoberfest

1989 r

No

Jul

ay

sd

7.30 am - 1.30 pm Primary school hours

12 am

Afternoon Muslim Prayer

y ida

Fr

dn e

W e

6.00 am - 5.00 pm Kindergarten hours

Counseling hour in Seniortreffpunkt

y

6 am

y a Tuesd

Evening Muslim Prayer Sunset Muslim Prayer 6 pm

nda

c

4.06 am First U-Bahn in Hallescher Tor Before Sunrise Muslim Prayer

Mo

y

nda

Su

Chinese’s New Year 2015-2016

Winte r De

10.00 am - 8.00 pm Jewish Museum

Most supermarkets are closed

Christmas

Au g

12 am

Street Market

12.46 am Last U-Bahn in Hallescher Tor

Autum n

7.00 am - 10.00 pm Kaiser’s Supermarket

New Year Eve

1970

1980

1990 1989 Fall of the Berlin Wall

2006 30% of Galilei 2014-2020 Primary School’s Investments children went to from EFRE in Berlin Gymnasium

2000

2010

2015

2011-14 Egyptian crisis 2011-present Syrian civil war

2020

2015


METHODOLOGY On Site Tools & Method for Site Investigation

interviewing

Narrative / Story Board Two Key Stakeholders

Story Begin John, a British young guy is enjoying his time off from the university’s studies and does a trip around Europe. Berlin is his fi rst stop, where he just came yesterday, through Shönefeld Airport. Some other friends are also there (they came from Tegel some days ago) and they all stay at a hostel in Kreuzberg.

John is very excited with the city and want to see as much things as possible, because in some days he continues his trip areound Europe. He decided then to buy a daily ticket for the public transportation and his fi rst point is the Alexander Platz. He goes there by U-Bahn, getting the U8 in Kottbusser Tor. After that, he walked to the Museum Island.

collecting traces

walking

surveying

taking notes

mapping

photography

Hassam and his family had a normal day today. He walked with his 5 years old daughter Sara to the Primary school before 7.30 am. It used to be more convenient to Hassam when she was yet the Kindergarten, where the children can stay from 6.00 am to 5.00 pm. Now the classes fi nishes at 1.30pm. A Reem’s cousin pick Sara in the Primary school, because both are working at that time.

Back to his house Hassam passed by the bakery and buys fresh Brötchen. He eats a fast breakfast with his wife and goes to the Tempelhof station, where he has a job as a shop assistant in a Imbisse in the lower ground. He goes by bicycle, saving the money of the public transportation’s ticket.Reem goes out a bit later and walk to Poco (a furniture store, on the other side of the river), where she has a side job.

Hassan Jafar Al Saud moved to Berlin 6 years ago with his wife Reem from Egypt. They lived or almost one year in relatives’ houses, who had came to Germany earlier. By intense searching and a great amount of luck, they could fortunately find a place right there in Mehringplatz for a reasonable price. After them, very few new people came to the area. The new rent contracts in the city became almost unaffordable.

John had a busy day today. After coming late from a party yesterday, it was hard to wake up at 9:30am to get the last minutes of the hostel’s breakfast. He ate as much as he could and went to the Checkpoint Charlie. He forgot to buy the daily ticket, but nobody controlled him. He got really impressed with the pictures of the area at the time of GDR and walked through Friedrichstrasse astonished with all sort of buildings there. When John came to Mehringplatz, was already hungry again and got a Fischbrot in the street market.

After that, John went to Potsdamer Platz, getting the bus M41. The buildings were amazing, but the food was expensive. He grab a Currywürst in Warschauerbrück (a famous region of parties in Berlin) before he met his friends there.

On the other side, Hassam uses the spaces around Mehringplatz for its routine activities, such as going to the mosque near to UBahn station Görlitzer Bahnhof, but also for less common activities, such as the bureaucracies related to his visa and resident registration (the famous “Anmeldung”). Normally he walks to the Bürgeramt, but sometimes he has to go the Ausländerbehörde, normally using U-Bahn.

When Reem’s workday finishes, she pick Sara in the cousin’s house. They have to find another solution for Sara, because it is too much work for her cousin. On Thursdays, they pass through the street market on their way back home and normally buy some first necessity products there. This time was new socks to Sara. Hassam comes later home, but brings the dinner, always some food of the Imbiss On Fridays morning, Hassam does not go work. It was agreed with the employer because of the Jumu’ah, the pray on Fridays noon, to be held in the Mosque. After leaving Sara in the kindergarten, he uses the time before the pray to solve domestic issues that is usually hard to do during the weekend, such as fix the bicycle, go to the bank or the Bürgeramt. This time, he spend his time going to the Quartiersmanagement. By persuasion of the Kindergarten’s staff, he went to a meeting about one of the projects of the community.


Narrative / Story Board John decided on this day to go to the Jewish Museum before lunch. He went by U-Bahn again, but when he got off the station, he could not find the way to the museum at the first glance, but someone helped him to find the right direction.

While he was sitting there, he heard a conversation from other tourist in English, speaking about the Karneval der Kulturen. He knew this name. It is a famous street fair in Berlin! He got interested and asked someone for directions. It is just on the other side of the bridge! John would never suspect that he was so close to that event

Because of Arabic and Turkish language classes to the community, she got some friends in the school that got interested about his arabic traditions. They usually have some chats how they are so different but exactly the same (especially their parents!) in the auditorium of Mehringplatz.

Hassam unfortunately had to leave the meeting before its end, because otherwise he would be late for the pray.

Karneval der Kulturen was really full! So full that was hard to buy anything there. John decided to come back to Mehringplatz to buy some drinks there, as it was so near. It was already dark and he realized that the area changed a lot: it got quite empty and much less attractive than before. Although he didn’t feel unsafe, he wouldn’t stay there for a long time. He decided came back to the Karneval (with some patience with the queues).

John got eventually back to England, where he finished his graduation program and started to work in a solar panel factory in Sheffield. He went to Berlin again, as a businessman, representing the company in a possible agreement with a German energy company. The CEO of the local company brings John to Kreuzberg to show as an successful example of a sustainable and innovative development in Berlin.

After the Museum (“It was amazing, but it is huge!”), John walked again in the region and noticed many other places that he didn’t saw last time, such as the Game Science Center, the Berliner Galerie, a faculty of design and even a new headquarter of a local newspaper under construction. He wonders that this region must be one of the cultural centres of the city

After the work, Hassam had set up a meeting with some friends in the square in front of his building. They kept there for a while, just talking (some smoking as well…), but when the other decided to go to a restaurant some block from there, he prefered to come back home.

John got really nostalgic with this experience and imagined if he comes here again as a student again. He would probably be helping the people that were building the benches in a carpentry workshop. Or he would just enjoy the view to the river from the Hallesche-Tor-Brücke.

John decided to come back near to the station to eat something. Already there, he stopped on a Türkish restaurant on the corner of Mehringplatz, where he ate a big Döner Kebap admiring the Shepard Fairey’s graffiti from the benches outside.

10 years later, Sara is already 17. Sara studies in a school near from that, Oberschule Am Köllnischen Park. With the program “Kreuzberg towards University” in her former primary school. Until now there is some activities in the the refurbishment in the inner circle of Mehringplatz, about technologies and programming that she attends. Because of this courses, she wants to do Engineering after her College.

At the end of the day, Sara visits the gardening project in the big courtyard of the Großwohnsiedlung. Some of his friends have a small job helping people to grow plants, with the knowledge that they had in the school. After speaking a while with Frau Schmidt, the group goes goes further to the south and see the movement of tourist at the square in front of the library, that has always some activity.


POSITION

Parque da Juventude

Superkilen Urban Space

Park am Gleisdreieck

Sao Paulo, 2003-2005

Copenhagen, 2012

Berlin, 2011-2014

Case Study Parc de la Villette Paris, 1982-1998 is a complex cultural, recreational and sports located in the North Zone of the city of São Paulo . In 2007 , the third and final phase was completed. Its construction took place in the place where it was implanted the old penitentiary Carandiru Complex , site historically marked by human rights violations, urban decay and violence. The design for the Parc de la Villette was selected from over 470 international competitors. The objectives of the competition were both to mark the vision of an era and to act upon the future economic and cultural development of a key area in Paris. As described in the competition, La Villette was not intended as a simple landscape replica; on the contrary, the brief for this “urban park for the 21st century” developed a complex program of cultural and entertainment facilities. La Villette could be conceived of as one of the largest buildings ever constructed — a discontinuous building but a single structure nevertheless, overlapping the site’s existing features and articulating new activities. It opposes the landscape notion of Olmsted, widespread during the 19th century, that “in the park, the city is not supposed to exist.” Instead, it proposes a social and cultural park with activities that include workshops, gymnasium and bath facilities, playgrounds, exhibitions, concerts, science experiments, games and competitions, in addition to the Museum of Science and Technology and the City of Music on the site. At night during the summer, the broad playing fields become an open-air movie theater for 3,000 spectators. http://www.tschumi.com/projects/3/

The park consists of three large spaces (each corresponding to one of the three phases of implementation): the first, the Sports Area, is recreational and sporting character, with sports courts, spaces to practice skateboarding and rollerblading, runways cooper , among others. Called Central Area, it is a recreational-contemplative character, with trails, landscaped paths, walkways, among other elements that refer more to the traditional idea of ​"park". Finally, the third, Institutional Area, is of cultural character, where are located the Etecs (Technical Schools) which offer regular courses in nursing, computer science, music, singing, among others. There is also the St. Paul Library, the responsibility of the Secretariat of Culture. The construction of a cultural park in Carandiru site was considered a symbolic act by the State Government to rid the place of the stigma of violence. During the presentation of the project proposal, however, there were several criticisms of experts in urban planning and public policy on the role that the park will have in the process of real estate speculation in the area. During the Carandiru deactivation period, the State Government held a public contest to choose the architectural design for the Cultural Center and the park. The winning group was the architect office Gian Carlo Gasperini , who blamed the office of architect - landscape Rosa Grena Kliass with the development of landscape proposal for the entire site. Kliass the project, the idea of dividing the project into three implementation phases, each characterized by a distinct profile. The construction was due to the engineering company and Kallas incorporation . https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parque_da_Juventude

http://www.frac-centre.fr/collection-art-architecture/tschumibernard/parc-la-villette-paris64.html?authID=192&ensembleID=599

http://www.vitruvius.com.br/revistas/read/arquiteturismo/06.069/ 4588

Superkilen is a half a mile long urban space wedging through one of the most ethnically diverse and socially challenged neighborhoods in Denmark. It has one overarching idea that it is conceived as a giant exhibition of urban best practice – a sort of collection of global found objects that come from 60 different nationalities of the people inhabiting the area surrounding it. Ranging from exercise gear from muscle beach LA to sewage drains from Israel, palm trees from China and neon signs from Qatar and Russia. Each object is accompanied by a small stainless plate inlaid in the ground describing the object, what it is and where it is from – in Danish and in the language(s) of its origin. A sort of surrealist collection of global urban diversity that in fact reflects the true nature of the local neighborhood – rather than perpetuating a petrified image of homogenous Denmark.

Superkilen is a park that supports diversity. It is a world exhibition of furniture and everyday objects from all over the world, including benches, lampposts, trash cans and plants – requisites that every contemporary park should include and that the future visitors of the park have helped to select. Superkilen reattributes motifs from garden history. In the garden, the translocation of an ideal, the reproduction of another place, such as a far off landscape, is a common theme through time. As the Chinese reference the mountain ranges with the miniature rocks, the Japanese the ocean with their rippled gravel, or how the Greek ruins are showcased as replicas in the English gardens. Superkilen is a contemporary, urban version of a universal garden. http://www.archdaily.com/286223/superkilen-topotek-1big-architects-superflex

After 2006, the State of Berlin put forward the proposal of converting Gleisdreieck into a large urban park that would integrate the different urban zones which converged there. The problematic, decades-long disconnectedness imposed by the enclave now presented an opportunity for joining the southern area of Potsdamer Platz with Kreuzberg and Schöneberg. The creation of the park would trigger one of the biggest urban expansions inside Berlin, all within a framework of many uses, tempos and social realities. It was necessary to stimulate the development of sixteen new hectares of productive neighbourhoods that would be capable of integrating different generations and social strata around a model of the sustainable city and in harmony with nature. The need to adapt these goals to preserving the pre-existing railway heritage also appeared following intense discussion with local proprietors and residents.

Once the terrain of the park had been submitted to a process of clearing away the undergrowth and decontamination, it was then organised by means of a combination of extant and added elements. The project as a whole was planned around a large central meadow, crossed from east to west by a concrete footpath and from north to south by a pair of railway lines. Once a month, a train slowly crosses these lines, travelling from its shed to the German Museum of Technology. The concrete footpath, which is a continuation of one of the main Kreuzberg boulevards, starts in the east, clearing the four metres difference in height of the platform by means of a stairway, and suddenly ends in the west on reaching the U-Bahn lines. http://www.publicspace.org/en/works/g047-park-amgleisdreieck


CONTEXT & ANALYSIS PROJECT CASHFLOW

75%

Network Fund € 3.5 M min. € 50,000 per project

€ 635 M

European Union € 850 M

European Regional Development Fund

Project Fund

2%

projects between € 5,000 - € 50,000

€ 215 M

25%

Quartiers Fund € 17 M

Building Fund € 6.79 M min. € 50,000 per project Senate Department for UrbanDevelopment and Enviroment

Action Fund

Bundesregierung German Federal State € 10,000 annually

€ 340 K max. € 1,500 per project cooperation

cooperation

Quartiersmanagement Mehringplatz

Strategies Overlapping

deliberation

max. € 1,500 per project

neighbourhood jury

Berlin Mitte Pulsierendes Zentrum

Proposal of Kreativquartier Südliche Friedrichstadt

coordination

small project

Sanierungsgebiet Südliche Friedrichstadt

main real-state company in Mehringplatz Joint-stock company


KEY STAKEHOLDERS street market

public transport

Jewish Museum walking

walking public transport

kaiser’s (supermarket)

bicycle primary school

Checkpoint Charlie

PRIMARY

KIN

DER

GA

mosque

RTE

N

playground kindergarten

neighbourhood meeting

citizen service centre

hostel

restaurants & cafes

Young family with Arabic/ Turkish background

Young foreign tourist / visitor

Families with low income, but very attached to the respectively community. Some integration’s problems with other social groups due language, cultural differences and bias. Men use the public space for meetings and casual conversation with other men. Women use the street mainly as circulation path, but have an intricate network within the neighbourhood’s community. Children are the linking point between their former culture and the German traditions.

Staying for the city for some days and not the highest budget to travel, Kreuzberg presents affordable options to stay, eat and go out. It has also many well-known touristic sightseeings and regular celebrations (Karnaval der Kulturen).


SPATIAL DESIGN STRATEGY

Residential to Commercial Area changing the part of building function, to improve the vitality of space

Building Intervention Support continuity to access the building and multifunction area

Amphitheatre dinamic access to get into commercial area and supporting new activities to this area

Mehringplatz towards University! Encouraging children through different activities in the temporary and permanent structures to learn to go Gimnasium (secondary school that prepares to university)

Pavement Pathway Continuous walking Pavement guiding continuity of the area

Greenspace continuity of green areas Linear park as flood control Improving flood control facilities considering the climate change

Existing areas Mehringplatz in Karneval der Kulturen Consider the Karneval der Kulturen as an important stakeholder to engage people and attract other possible stakeholders Linking Bridge to invite and facilitate the access for pedestrian who going towards this building Pavement connecting Mehringplatz to the important sites around this area

Design Strategy Layers


CRITICAL REFLECTION Re-appropriating (ideas of) modernist-housing in Mehringplatz, Berlin is an excellence experience I have learned. The project was observed and produced ideas of public space in the historical sites of Berlin, Germany. Berlin is a complex place. This, combined with a high immigrant population, and sprawling suburban/rural patterns, makes it an ever difficult city to understand, yet alone work on. The project embraces the idea of 'designing as a contextual condition to engage with the area of Mehringplatz and its surroundings, and to suggest Strategies and Tactics of Re-appropriation for this large scale housing scheme. We were focusing our attention on unused / disused / underused spaces within the neighbourhood’s public spaces and buildings, and we atempt to make spatial interventions that capitalise on existing actors and initiatives to transform the neighbourhood from the micro-scale. Addressing the physical, functional, and ecological limits of the housing scheme, our design interventions are explored new pathways towards more resilient and ecologically aware lifestyles. Our main tool for designing and communicating your project will be the construction of physical models, supported by concept diagrams and collages. The project are looking at the questions how such modernist housing estates could be ‘re-appropriated’ for the city and how the people living within these neighbourhoods can exert their agency to re-imagine and transform their place of living. Our interest is particularly set on the ways in which existing and potential practices of reappropriation can allow for intensifying the use these large-scale housing schemes, and promote more sustainable ways of living. Focusing our attention on underused / unused / disused spaces in the public realm and within the buildings themselves, we will investigate how citizen-led initiatives, new collective services and facilities, and innovative forms of inter-cultural exchange may allow for creating more diverse and resilient neighbourhoods. Today, the housing estate is facing a lot of social and environmental problems which are officially addressed through two related frameworks. Since 2004 the Mehringplatz and its surrounding area are one of the 38 designated Quartiersmanagement [Neighbourhood management] area in a programme which aims to support defined urban quarters which are disadvantaged in terms of its social, economic and built context. Since 2011 the area (with slightly different boundaries than the QM) is also a designated Sanierungsgebiet [Regeneration Area] aiming to improve the overall urban built structure and conditions of theSüdliche Friedrichstadt. Afterwards we develop a Spatial Design Strategy for the future development of inclusive public space in Mehringplatz, Berlin. This Spatial Design Strategies was grounded in our analysis and research in Mehringplatz, and we learns from the interesting precedent studies in various places. Our spatial Design Strategies are include a range of tangible/physical and intangible/social elements. Reflects on the re-appropriating modern housing I have learned in urban design project that integrates knowledge of the social, political, economic and professional contexts that influence the production of the built environment and I also have gained the interesting knowledge approaches in the urban design, participative urban design, sociology of urban design, sustainability in urban design and regulatory requirements; and formulate the design response which is appropriate to the site, the physical and social context. I also realize there are still many weaknesses in my design strategy, because this is my first experience of formulate and collaborate by partial strategy and compiled in Spatial Design Strategies. I felt very satisfied working in the group, it makes us easily to share our ideas and correlate with their ideas, and also they are very responsive to provide some input to our ideas and make a strong improvement.




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