The Berlin Diaries 2: Alternative Urbanism

Berlin is known as a laid back city. And while it is a capital of an economic powerhouse it lacks the splash, grandeur and the historical depth of cities such as London, Paris or Rome. Yet it is precisely this informal nature of public life, its unpretentiousness, that has contributed to its charm and the proliferation of a bohemian life-style.

Nowhere is this more evident than in its public spaces, streets and even Metro stops. It is here that the true character of the city unfolds. There are of course the traditional settings of European city life such as the weekly vegetable market that can be found throughout the city. One of them is called the ‘Winterfeldtmarkt’ in the upscale district of Shoeneberg which I decided to visit with a colleague on an early Saturday morning prior to attending a workshop on urbanism in the Gulf at the Center for Oriental Studies (ZMO).

The market is located in a large square in the middle of the district and is occupied by a series of stalls selling all kinds of vegetables, fruits, meats, cheeses and deserts. An open-air supermarket but the sellers are local producers and growers, owning individual businesses. For residents in the district this is were they do their everyday shopping – they know the sellers, greet them by name and so on. In short a strong sense of cohesion and community is maintained and nurtured through such a space.

These are conventional and traditional settings – there is nothing unusual about them. But there is a much more radical proliferation of public spaces which seems to be unique to Berlin. On the sidelines of the above mentioned conference the organisers arranged a trip to what is known as the “Mediaspree Project,” The ‘Spree’ is a river running through Berlin, alongside its once infamous wall which divided the city into East and West. Waterfronts are always valuable real estate and as such it was no surprise that the Berlin government aimed at turning this into an investment opportunity by selling the land along the River to investors – foreign and German. A series of high-rise towers were proposed that would have turned this area into a private space for office workers and corporations. Very familiar to us in the Gulf, of course.

Since this is Europe, and specifically Berlin, a group of activists rallied against this project and formed a group that called for a reconsideration of this project. They did not just stop there but they took this protest a step further and occupied a stretch of empty land along the river that had been slated for development and turned it into an informal public place – open to the public. One enters through an opening in the wall and is faced with a series of temporary structured made of wood and other materials.

The concrete fence/wall is painted with colorful drawings and text. The ground is covered in sand thus making the space resemble a beach. Dominating the setting is a large structure serving drinks and food alongside which people can sit. During our brief visit many people came with children, teenagers were sitting alongside the river embankment, and others were walking their dog.

There is an ‘African’ feel to the space – suggested by the nature of the paintings, the music emanating from the cafeteria and also the name of the space – YAAM – which means Young African Arts Market.

Naturally, the government did not approve of this but they have been tolerated given that there is an overall depression of the real estate market and many investors are waiting till the environment improves. But, more significantly the activists have secured the support of the Green party, who have been invited to plant trees for example. In addition they have also been lobbying for a change in building regulations to enable people to enjoy the river. Thus, they were able to secure regulations specifying that a distance of 10m to 50m from the river should be maintained as public space.

Such efforts exist to varying degrees in other parts of the world – whereby residents take matters into their own hand and create a kind of alternative urbanity within a city’s fringe spaces, that defies what they perceive as an infringement on people’s right to access public amenities such as rivers. In urban theory this is called temporary, informal and sometimes guerilla urbanism.

While in Berlin, the reclaiming of such spaces borders on illegality there are always possibilities or options were both public and private groups can cooperate. For instance in New York, Manhattan the much celebrated High Line project whereby a stretch of unused railroad tracks has been converted into an urban park is a good example. Aside from attracting a lot of people to a previously neglected and disused part of the city, it has spurred development alongside the tracks.

Recognising the different socio-cultural conditions existing in the Gulf region, such examples of an alternative urbanity would be a breath of fresh air to the standardised and recycled images of urban design proposals we see in glossy brochures and master plans.

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