The Spacious City model

Where can the Spacious City model be seen?The birthplace of the Spacious City model was the IBA Studio in the old Zollgarage at Tempelhof Airport. Following the closure of the IBA Studio in May 2011, it moved to the architecture building at the Technical Univer-sity, where it was further developed by archi-tecture and urban design students. In August 2011, the Spacious City model joined the Berlin models at the Senate Department for Urban Development, Am Köllnischen Park 3. News of the Spacious City model has already spread to international specialist circles. The renowned Architecture Biennale in Rotterdam in the Netherlands has already made a request for the Spacious City model to be exhibited there in April 2012.

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Imprint

Publisher / Editor / CoordinationSenatsverwaltung für StadtentwicklungWerkstatt – Baukultur, Kommunikation, Oberste DenkmalschutzbehördeAm Köllnischen Park 310179 BerlinIBA2020@SenStadt.Berlin.deTel. 030 21403195

in cooperation with the Pre-IBA team:Dr. Sonja Beeck, Martin Heller, Markus Bader, Vanessa Miriam Carlow, Pamela Dorsch, Dr. Thilo Lang, Dr. Fritz Reusswig

Spacious City model, concept and realisationVanessa Miriam Carlow with Jana Gutge / COBE and students at the Technical University, Berlin

Graphic designchezweitz & roseapple Rose Epple, Natalia Göllner, Kay Kutschkau

PhotosHelena Giuffrida (the model in the IBA Studio),Volker Kreidler (Berlin), Vanessa Miriam Carlow(model and model construction)

IllustrationsThomas Rustemeyer

Printers primeline print berlin GmbH

Date: July 2011www.stadtentwicklung.berlin.de/iba_2020

Thank you

The realisation of the Spacious City model was only made possible thanks to the dedicated work of Adriano Hellbusch, Niklas Kuhlendahl, Daniel Liczkowski, Melanie Mißfeld, Leo Stuckardt, Daniel Vedder and participants of the Spacious City seminar at the Technical University, Berlin (summer semester, 2011).

The Senate Department for Urban Development wishes to thank the Faculty for Architecture and Sustainable Urban Development, the Institut für Städtebau und Architektur (ISA) – the institute for urban development and architecture – of the Technical University of Berlin for their support in this project.

KommunikationAm Köllnischen Park 3, 10179 Berlinkommunikation@senstadt.berlin.de

In search of the city capital – the Spacious City modelIf all the big, empty buildings in Berlin were to be lit up at night, some areas of the city would be illuminated in an eerie light. If trees were planted in all the derelict sites and empty building gaps, Berlin in high summer would be like a shady spot in the Botanical Gardens. If renewable energies were to be produced on all free spaces on the infrastructures, and on all flat roofs, Berlin would turn into a huge power plant. If all river bank areas were accessible to the public, Berlin would probably have the longest city beaches in Europe.

Why a Spacious City model for Berlin?Space is an important resource in Berlin! The purpose of the Spacious City model is to give a fact-based visualisation to this intuitive knowledge. When the diverse space potential of the city is cartographically recorded; it creates room for imagination and dreams for the future of the city. The Spacious City model clearly illustrates the following: Berlin really does have a large number of buildings and spaces available for development which are disused, or no longer in use, underused, temporary or not yet used – in short, “voids”.The aim of the Spacious City strategy is to record these voids in relation to climate adaptation and climate protection, social and economic sustainability, and the dynamic and beauty of Berlin, to clearly identify their functions for the body and community of the city, to formulate protection requirements and to set a prioritisation for (new) uses. As a tool, the Spacious City model clearly illustrates this.

For further information on the IBA Berlin 2020 go to: www.stadtentwicklung.berlin.de/iba_2020

How are voids found?The search pattern when going through the city is created by small and large empty sites, the space between loosely arranged or discon-nected buildings, interspaces and green areas along streets, derelict spaces, relinquished industrial sites, stowage areas, wide street sections and residual areas around infrastruc-tures, large concrete areas, large empty prop-erties, vertical building gaps, hectares or flat roofs and underused areas on the water or buildings and spaces which will soon no long-er be in use. Some have been well-known, while others lie like wounds in the city. It takes an inquisitive spirit to discover the others, as voids can be completely unrecognisable at first sight. Small empty spaces in interesting locations can also stimulate the imagination and become a start-ing point for valuable ideas.

What does the Spacious City model show?The Spacious City model acts like a three-dimensional map, in which the voids in the city are recorded. It shows where they lie and how large they are. However, it does not show to whom they belong or whether plans for their future use are already being made. The Spacious City model shows Berlin on a scale of 1:5000. On this scale, 100 m in the real city shrinks to 2 cm on the model. In its largest form, Berlin covers an area of around 45 by 38 km. Accordingly, the model is around 9 m wide and 7.6 m long. Therefore, in this model, Berlin is the size of a small three-room flat (68.4 m2). The Spacious City model is made up of the 12 districts like a big puzzle. Depending on requirements or the display site, the district puzzle pieces can be locked together or viewed and worked on separately, depending on whether the subject of interest is the entire city or a certain area. Even those who know Berlin “like the back of their own hand” will find their knowledge of the city represented in a very visual and imme-diate way. For example, it can be clearly seen that Treptow-Köpenick really is the largest and most wooded district in Berlin, with the largest amount of water, or that voids are still to be found even in Mitte.

What makes the Spacious City model so special is that it shows the entire city body of Berlin after reunification. However, it not only shows the buildings in the city, but also the number and diversity of Berlin voids in the city context. A high resolution aerial image taken in the summer of 2010 was used as a basis. However, the model is also of interest to those who are not primarily looking for voids: people looking for their own home, places where they used to spend time when they were young or their favourite spots in the city will be just as fascinated by the model. However, it cannot be seen from an aerial image whether a building is empty and fall-ing into disrepair, or whether a grassy area on the water is hemmed in by a fence. For this reason, it is of absolute necessity for “void scouts” to have visited the sites. By May 2011, within a short period of time, a collection of over 1,000 voids in Berlin was compiled. There is a photo, an address and a brief description of each of the voids shown in the model. These are collected in an accompanying catalogue. On the aerial image, the voids are marked with coloured, reflecting or translucent adhesive films. Build-ings which are clearly empty are built as blue cubes. They are scattered all over the city. Areas which are marked with a silver film show sites owned by the Berlin empty site management. Areas marked in gold show residual areas around infrastructures, such as central strips or areas below motorways and rail tracks. The other voids are marked with a shiny rain-bow-coloured film. This film is also transpar-ent, so that visitors can see what is currently happening on these sites. For example, dere-

lict sites can still be seen in the aerial image as sandy areas with sparse vegetation. It is interesting to see how information on the voids – their size and location in the city – connects up with other information in the model. The demarcation of the current Berlin reclamation areas with yellow lines shows that there are many voids concentrated in some of them. Other possible links between the voids and the space-related projects and strategies of the city are also illustrated by the model. For

example, the model could help to overlay the aims of the climate city development plan (STEP Klima) with the information on the location and size of derelict sites and to clearly present this to the viewer.

Who built the Spacious City model?The Spacious City model was created with the help of a large number of active contribu-tors and is continuously being updated. The initial idea transpired from discussions between the Pre-IBA team and the Senate Director of Urban Development, Regula Lüscher and her colleagues relating to the particular potential of Berlin – the city capital. Seven dedicated architecture and urban design students quickly got together at the Technical University, Berlin. In the space of two weeks, they created a “building shell” of the model in the IBA Studio. In April and May, as part of an urban development seminar at the Faculty for Architecture and Sustainable Urban Development at the Technical Univer-sity, Berlin, a further 50 students from 10 countries went in search of Berlin voids. Many visitors to the IBA Studio also went to look for voids on their Sunday walks. In future, the model will even better enable citizens to participate in the search for possi-ble sites and projects for the IBA Berlin 2020. However, a suitable format still has to be found for the purpose. One option is to trans-fer the Spacious City model to the internet.