Berlin, Germany’s capital city, was born in the 13th century as a medieval trading center. Centuries passed and more recently, Berlin has had to rebuild itself from a turbulent history of the Nazi regime and the Berlin Wall, experiencing a major construction boom throughout the following years. Berlin has taken the opportunity to rebuild itself as an opportunity to rebuild for the future by repurposing old spaces, focusing on sustainability and renewable energies, and fostering environments for innovation. This easily places it as one of the world’s most vibrant and successful cities. Today, a number of government buildings are energy neutral. It is transforming the older Berlin-Tegel Airport into a knowledge, innovation, and industry urban center. Berlin has many spaces for innovation like the CleanTech Innovation Center and Adlershof. But being such an attractive city has its consequences. Housing is becoming less affordable as gentrification starts to creep in and raise prices.
Berlin, as a city divided for decades, is in a unique position when it comes to urban planning. The city has to ensure that it is lifting all people up, not just one group or one side of the former wall. So far, that effort has been really successful. Despite debts, the city of Berlin has remade itself into an innovation capital of the world. There have been many private groups that have been responsible for this, but the majority of them also receive funds from the government, creating public-private partnerships. When the government gives private industry money to develop certain technologies that will likely benefit people or make Germany even more of an economic powerhouse, private industry usually follows through. This public-private partnership model is a very impressive one not used nearly as often in the United States. While it is in place all across Germany, we saw some of the most impressive PPP’s in Berlin (for example, Adlershof).
Furthermore, in the “Urban Development Concept Berlin 2030,” there are many important concepts relating to the planning future of Berlin, but the most relevant is ten transformation areas the city plans to focus on. These areas are Berlin Mitte, City West, Stadtspree and Neukölln, Wedding, Berlin TXL, Spandau, Schöneweide-Adlershof-BER, Südwest, Marzahn-Hellersdorf, and Buch. The document focuses on how each of these areas brings its unique characteristics to the city of Berlin and why they will be a focus for the next thirteen years. While some of these areas are simply a focus until 2030, most of them are or will be hearts of cluster economies, such as Adlershof and Berlin TXL. The city has specific goals for each area to make the city more innovative and to boost economic activity and while there are concerns like affordable housing not addressed as much as they probably should, this is a positive, specific vision that will transform Berlin’s future.
Once a city divided, Berlin has reunified and has undergone major redevelopment since WWII and the Cold War. Berlin has been the site of extensive construction to rebuild areas that were bombed during WWII or left as wastelands during the Cold War. The city has been successful in revitalizing areas and bringing life back to formerly bleak districts. Like much of Berlin, Potsdamer Platz was destroyed during WWII and bisected by the Berlin Wall during the Cold War leaving it lifeless until the reunification of the city and the redevelopment that ensued. Today, Potsdamer Platz is a lively area in the heart of Berlin outfitted with modern architecture that has attracted locals and tourists with its array of shops, restaurants, nightlife, and tourist facilities. While Potsdamer Platz is a vibrant and modern quarter, designers intentionally left historic features to maintain the culture and identity of the site. Pieces of the Berlin Wall are displayed to share about the former history of the city. In addition, the iconic Potsdamer Platz Clock with a replica of the historic traffic lights formerly used in Berlin is fixed in the center of the district. These historic features add to the imageability of the area and are important for the history of Potsdamer Platz as it experiences redevelopment.
Berlin has been a home for alternative culture, street artists, vibrant nightlife, and radical politics. This culture is not only important for those living in Berlin, but it also attracts tourists who want to see and experience this culture for themselves. Masses of people have poured into the country’s capital due to its unique culture and affordable rents. However, the city’s booming development and revitalization has threatened to push many locals out of their homes. Berlin has a history of people squatting in buildings to live affordably and to promote affordable housing. To counter the gentrification the city has started to see, the people of Berlin have put pressure on their government to increase the amount of social housing, implement rent caps, or create development-free zones. The local government has worked with squatters to provide funding for them since they are willing to refurbish the old buildings, which help the city keep much of its uniqueness. Berlin is growing rapidly, but the city’s grassroots movements have slowed gentrification, helping to protect the identity that made the city so popular in the first place.
With the opening of the new Berlin-Brandenburg Airport, the rundown Berlin Tegel airport will close, leaving tons of infrastructure and unused space behind. The Berlin TXL-The Urban Tech Republic project, a research and industrial park for urban technologies, will convert the space into a living lab for exploring future technologies such as efficient energy, sustainable buildings, transportation, new materials, ICT solutions, and more. With excessive talent in Berlin and minimal housing, Berlin desperately needs this new project to provide a new sustainable living and working space. Berlin TXL will also create The Schumacher Quarter, modern apartments fit to house students, engineers, entrepreneurs, companies, and startups; these quarters will not just be for sleeping, but will serve as an experimental space for new urban technologies such as climate adaptation, renewable energy, and limited waste. Berlin TXL has been awarded the platinum pre-certification for sustainability by the German Sustainable Building Council making it a leader in ‘Climate-neutral’, ‘climate-adapted’, and ‘water-sensitive’ urban development.
Berlin TXL is the model smart city and industrial park. Not only does the campus boast the most research on revolutionary of urban technologies, but they are also tested and integrated into living here. Researchers will be simultaneously creating, testing, and living in their own futuristic paradise. Here, the expectation will be data and technology integration from the start, making monitoring and controlling processes and systems the norm. As Berlin TXL is the example smart city, features of smart cities will be present in all forms of technology including autonomous shuttles, renewable energy integration, efficient batteries to store energy, creative ICT solutions, and more. Berlin TXL will be the hub for new innovations developing the solutions of tomorrow.
Berlin TXL is not the only innovation campus in Berlin; the Clean Tech Innovation Center and Adlershof, the “City of Science, Technology, and Media” have similar goals to foster useful ideas for the future. The CleanTech Innovation Center and Business Park in Berlin, Germany work in tandem to first develop cleantech startups and later transition them to the CleanTech Business Park where the established cleantech companies are housed. Small startups in the Innovation Center benefit from the mentoring program, strong networking with global partners, and an exchange program all run in connection to the Business Park. Similar to the CleanTech Innovation Center, Adlershof is a leading science, technology, and media outlet, fostering startups and companies in these sectors. Each of these companies strive to produce the smartest technologies; some of the projects at the CleanTech Park range from wifi connectivity devices making materials for museum available on mobile phones or a wifi-enabled cloud that can manage herds and produce electricity. The options are endless here. These innovation hubs understand that the fundamentals of smart cities are at our fingertips. Their problem and work lies in bringing these ideas to life in order to implement them in the real world and transition us into a smart future.
Revitalizing a city so often begins with the creative class - the artists, nonprofits, young people, DIY culture, urban farmers, and small-scale entrepreneurs begin the movement. And yet so often, this creative class is slowly priced out. The attractiveness of the city is realized, real estate investors move in, and housing prices goes up. Not all cities with vibrant arts, music, and social scenes, though, are hit with such hard gentrification. While housing prices are still a problem, Berlin is a model city to show how a little bit of tolerance and creativity can go a long way. For years, young people, especially anarchists have been squatting in abandoned buildings and open land when the money runs out and housing is no longer an option. In Berlin, unlike many other cities, social movements have actually emerged to protect these people and other cohousing options for low and middle-income residents. The result is not only social cooperation, but protection of the city’s culture. Squatters help preserve beautiful buildings from being demolished for urban renewal, and the movement was so large it inspired city officials to offer funding for those willing to refurbish the buildings. This protection of the creative class has allowed Berlin to maintain its artistic, inventive and tolerant culture, leading to a happier and healthier city.
The creativity of Berlin shines through in its Berlin TXL project. Taking an airport, especially one so old and close to Berlin’s heart, and converting it into a mixed-use project is essentially unheard of. However, the liveable and friendly business campus this will create will serve as a model for creating dense, green, and mobile cities. Bicycle traffic will have priority, encouraging active travel for its residents, and green roofs will be used to manage microclimate and potentially urban farming. A big landscape park will also be integrated into the area; green space like this is known to be psychologically restoring and a promoter for activity and social gatherings. Finally, half the housing will be sold to a municipal company that will provide a range of low to high end housing, which can lead to a healthy social atmosphere that lacks socioeconomic gradients in health status.
Berlin does have a lot of history, and part of that history includes the divide between East and West Germany while the wall was still erect. Yet part of what is so amazing behind Berlin’s redevelopment is the ability to reconnect the whole city, and whole country, after the wall came down. Not only were physical structures, such as Postdamer Platz, redeveloped, but society was able to come together to improve life for both sides. Reunification added 6.2 years to the life of men, and 4.2 years to the life of women in former East Germany, and while no cause is definite, it is believed that the redevelopment after the wall came down improved both standard of living and medical care all across Germany.