Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
It has also been argued that these politics have not led to the desired strengthening of a clear city
centre. The new government buildings, the new main railway station and the redeveloped Potsdamer
Platz formed an attempt to connect the existing centres. However, the projects have rather underlined
the polycentrality by adding another centre to the existing ones (Oswalt 2000). Moreover, critics have
argued that these new projects have failed to project an image that Berliners could recognise (Bisky
2006). In a paper for the Urban Age summit in Berlin in 2006, Bisky claims that these new
developments have contributed further to the fragmentation of the city because the new representative
centre does not intersect with the living space of the inhabitants.
More than ever, Berlin is a conglomeration of parallel worlds, a hotchpotch of stages on which long-established residents,
newcomers and tourists make their respective entrances." (Bisky)
The Planwerk Innenstadt was rewarded with the Deutscher Stdtebaupreis in 2006.
(http://www.dasl.de/staedtebaupreis/?p=252)
events in vacant buildings imply that the fragmented city has been one of the factors which have
triggered this creative development. Due to the low cost of living and surplus of space, the city has
become a magnet internationally for young people with creative potential (Overmeyer 2007). Thus,
this phenomenon creative people with time on their hands, who innovatively develop the potential of
surplus space can be observed all over Berlin. (ibid.); Beach volley ball courts and flea markets pop
up at vacant sites, empty shop windows are filled with small independent design shops, and old
industrial buildings become hosts for parties and events.
The last years, the politicians too have started to recognise how this creative potential can be
transformed into economic growth, and moreover that the creativity actually inherit a possible image
building factor when it comes to attracting tourists as well as more creatives to the city. With the
globalisation of the world the factors which make cities attractive have to some extent changed, and it
has been set forth that innovative entrepreneurial practices now operate as trademarks of cities`
creativity, dynamism and innovative ability (Bittner 2006). According to Regina Bittner, a researcher
and cultural theorist teaching at the Bauhaus in Dessau, the creatives are attracted first and foremost
by cities` cultural heterogeneity, their ability to innovate and be tolerant. Thus, promoting the creative
development could be an opportunity to reach a high-profile location in the cities`global competition.
(Overmeyer 2007)
"Vacant sites and disused premises are not a constraint but a prerequisite of restructuring. They are the spaces of the future: a
training ground and experimental zone for the future city." Ingeborg Junge-Reyer, senator for Urban Development, Berlin
It seems the fragmentation which the authorities originally wanted to sweep away, and the empty
spaces which had to be filled in, have proved to be of great value not only as an image building factor.
Temporary use has even turned out to be an important component of urban planning in Berlin
(Overmeyer 2007). Recent initiatives of the authorities to make the planning regulations more flexible
and responsive to temporary use indicate that its potential energy has been noticed. In the end this
means some kind of justification of the fragmented landscape which has put Berlin firmly on the map
in the European imagination and proves that, here at least, everything is possible and anything goes,
no matter how limited your resources (Bisky 2006).
V. Reading between the lines
Nevertheless, the potential of the inner-city voids of Berlin is not a recent discovery. Ever since the fall
of the Berlin Wall there have been voices promoting their value and importance. Berlin tells its stories
in its scars, the voids and the absence of built form contain more stories than the built. (Huyssen
2005). Already in 1992, Daniel Liebeskind suggested that the best way to deal with the void of the
Wall was to preserve it as it was: I suggest a wilderness, one kilometre long, within which everything
can stay as it is. The street simply ends in the bushes. Wonderful. (Daniel Liebeskind quoted in
Huyssen 2005). A void so filled with history and memories would lie as a reminder, telling the story of
the city with its emptiness. The Italian Architects IaN+ follow the same line of thoughts as they argue
that the no mans land was not only important in regard to the inhabitants feeling of belonging
because it made people more sensitive and aware of the image of their wounded, but living, city
(IaN+ 2006). What is more, it could in fact have had the capability to fulfil the longing for an identity
and become the new face of the city (ibid.)
"I had never realized so clearly before that there have to be places in cities that are not occupied, but that have to open up
suddenly, like clearings in a wood. I like the word we have in German for clearing: "Lichtung", suggesting a place with bright
clear light, as does the English "clearing". If you don`t have islands of light and disorder like this the city becomes overloaded, it
becomes a closed system." Wim Wenders (Casu and Steingut 2006)
With regards to open space within the city, film creator Wim Wenders has been one of those
promoting this not only as a luxury and advantage, but as a necessity for cities. In Wim Wenders` film
Himmel ber Berlin, the old man Homer walks around in the void of the Berlin Wall, searching for the
Potsdamer Platz he knew when he was young, however finding nothing but wasteland. Wenders
suggests in an interview that Homer would have become even more surprised and confused if he had
returned to the redeveloped Potsdamer Platz. Thus, in an empty space it was easier for him to recall
his memories and reconstruct the former platz in his imagination (Casu and Steingut 2006). Wenders
continues with comparing the function of empty and open spaces in a city to reading between the lines
in a text: the empty spaces in the cities work like that as well. They encourage us to fill them up with
ourselves" (ibid). Perhaps this points out the most crucial quality of empty space, that it is a space of
opportunities, of future stories. Thus, these places trigger our imagination; encourage us to add our
own stories to the city. Because where nothing exists, everything is possible.
Wo nichts ist, ist alles vorstellbar." Phillip Oswalt
VI. References
Beier, L et al. (2007): Grossstadt ohne Grssenwahn in Der Spiegel 12/2007 p.22-38
Bisky, J. (2006): "Berlin: A profile" in Towards an Urban Age, www.urban-age.net
Bittner, R. (2006): Life`s a beach. Fields of urban gravitation in Arch+ nr.180 Convertible Cities
pp.50-55
Casu A. and Steingut, I. (2006): "Wim Wenders, A sense of Place" in Arch+ nr.180 Convertible Cities
pp.110-115
Huyssen, A. (2005): "The Voids of Berlin" in Future city, Read, S. et al. (ed.), London and New York:
Spon Press.
IaN+ (2006) "Emptiness" in Talking Cities: The Micropolitics of Urban Space, Ferguseon, F.(ed),
Basel, Boston and Berlin: Birkhuser
Kniess, B. and Lagos, L. (2006): "The Cartography of Everyday Life" in Talking Cities: The
Micropolitics of Urban Space, Ferguseon, F.(ed), Basel, Boston and Berlin: Birkhuser
Oswalt, P. (2000): Stadt ohne Form, Mnchen, London, New York: Prestel
Overmeyer, K. (ed.) (2007): Urban Pioneers: Berlin: Stadtentwicklung durch Zwischennutzung, Berlin:
Jovis
Studio E.U. et al. (2006): "Berlin Wall(k)" in Talking Cities: The Micropolitics of Urban Space,
Ferguseon, F.(ed), Basel, Boston and Berlin: Birkhuser