urban regeneration

DRAGONER AREAL, BERLIN

DRAGONER AREAL, BERLIN

Dragoner Areal is a key area in the heart of Kreuzberg, one of the last plots available for development. It is the nucleus of a Regeneration area (Sanierungsgebiet Rathausblock) that was planned to be sold by the Institute for Federal Real Estate to private investors. It has been the object of a mobilisation of citizens against the privatisation, and after a series of controversial negotiation its property has been transferred to the Berlin government in 2019. Project models were planned and met with enthusiasm by both citizens and several stakeholders, collaborating to advance solutions that could foster social equality and ecological empowerment to the neighborhood. However, a recent sentence from the Berlin-Brandburg Tribunal has declared the reasons behind the transaction of the Dragoner Areal to the Berlin state as illegal. Therefore, the future of the place is still undecided.

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RAW-GELÄNDE FRIEDRICHSHAIN

RAW-GELÄNDE FRIEDRICHSHAIN

A Prussian railway workshop, a Cold War industrial wasteland, a contemporary socio-cultural center in the heart of Berlin Friedrichshain. The area is emblematic of collective and informal processes of creative transfomation reinventing Berlin’s urban landscape. The R.A.W. in Berlin-Friedrichshain was originally serving as a railway workshop in the XIX century. After being damaged during World War II and undergoing various transformations, it became a neglected wasteland in post-unification Berlin. In 1999, the RAW-Tempel association repurposed the site for artistic and cultural activities, aiming to create a vibrant hub for creativity and community engagement. In 2015, the Kurth Group acquired ownership of R.A.W. and recognized its potential for investment and urban development. Unlike other financial actors, the new owner aimed to respect the site’s identity and socio-cultural programs, giving long-term residents more control over their pre-existing properties. Establishing a participatory approach to urban planning, new plans for the R.A.W. Tower, a 100-meter-tall building, was set to be constructed starting in 2024. The project is intended to blend with older activities, integrating new offices, green areas, markets, and other services, with the R.A.W.’s role as a cultural institution. However, concerns about power dynamics and possible future compromises between top and bottom interests revolving around the R.A.W. might still challenge the current collaborations between the community and external investors.  

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Die Lause

Die Lause

Similarly to other cases in the Berlin-Kreutzberg, the Lause has been threatened by the possibility of an unaffordable rent increase due to the intention of the owner to sell the building to the highest bidder. The complex has been used for both residential and commercial uses, and its inhabitants vary from families, to craftspeople, from artistic collectives to political initiatives, whose work is deeply rooted in the neighbourhood’s fabric. Following the threat of being displaced from their home, the Lause community understood that in order to contest gentrification they needed to collectively self-organise. Based on principles of solidarity and community building, they engaged in a journey marked by the frenetic and chaotic rhythm that tight schedules and exhausting negotiations impose. After more than 5 years of struggle, the Lause was successfully saved, as in 2022 an agreement was reached allowing the Berlin municipality to buy back the property. Now, the Lause is able to maintain its status as an open and non-commercialized space at the neighborhood’s disposal without being threatened by further risks of displacement, as a lease was recently signed granting the residents with a free use of the estate for 65 years.

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Porta Capuana – Napoli

Porta Capuana – Napoli

Porta Capuana is the eastern gate of the historical center of Naples, and gives the name to the neighbourhood that developed around it. While the economic difficulties of its inhabitants are a long-known problem, a recent rise in the multicultural background of the neighbourhood residents has changed its dynamics. Some regeneration plans have been launched by public bodies, which co-exist with a renewed vibrancy in the local activities of associations and private stakeholders.

MEHRINGPLATZ – SÜDLICHE FRIEDRICHSTADT

MEHRINGPLATZ – SÜDLICHE FRIEDRICHSTADT

Suffering from its marginalized position during the years of the German division, the neighborhood was recognized and labelled as a deprived area in 2005 due to its low standards of economic development, its poor social integration and quality of life. These characteristics made the territory of Südliche Friedrichstadt a periphery in the centre of Berlin, as the area is located in the proximity of some of the city’s main attractive spots, such as the lively Mitte and the creative Friedrichschain-Kreutzberg. In a twenty-year time-span, a set of policies of local urban renewal has been gradually implemented to re-centralize the neighborhood, starting from the very re-centralization of the role of its residents in directly participating in small decision-making processes. This served to acknowledge, create and institutionalize their identity as a geo-social collectivity. Commercial, leasure and creative initiatives have begun to flourish in the area, projecting it as an emblem of juxtapositions and contradictory tendencies characterizing modern urban contexts, whereby transitions to new lifestyles are mediated by old identites and latent risks of gentrification, displacement and social conflicts.

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