Make City 2018 Festival - Newspaper

14th JUNE – 1st JULY 2018
Strukturen / Prozesse Structures / Processes
9
New construction projects
should not be at the mercy of
speculation and forces of the free
market. This is the only way in
which we can secure long-term,
affordable spaces in our cities.
FLORIAN SCHMIDT
Im Falle Haus der Statistik wird ein erheblicher Teil dieser Bewegungen
zum/zur gestaltenden Bauherr*in. Wer kuratiert
die Raumnutzung?
EG: ZUsammenKUNFT hat den Anspruch, den weiteren
Planungsprozess transparent, offen und anspruchsvoll
zu gestalten.
Welche Konsequenzen hat die Neukonstellation für die Verwaltung,
die dort einziehen soll?
EG: Im Neubau soll ein neues Rathaus für Mitte mit Räumen
für das kommunale Parlament entstehen. Damit
wird das Haus der Statistik auch ein wichtiger Ort der
Demokratie. In das Erdgeschoss sollen darüber hinaus
publikumswirksame und gemeinwohlorientierte Nutzungen
einziehen. Ziel ist ein offener und gut vernetzter Erdgeschossbereich,
der das ganze Quartier verbindet. Insgesamt
sollen – neben Flächen für die öffentliche Verwaltung
und für rund 250 Wohnungen – 25.000 Quadratmeter
Bruttogeschoßfläche für soziokulturelle und
andere Nutzungen, auch solche, die wirtschaftlich ausgerichtet
sind, geschaffen werden.
Was ist in Anbetracht dessen Ihre Vision für ein Berliner
Modell der Stadtentwicklung? Welche Kernideen oder notwendigen
Bausteine, streben Sie für ein gerechtes Modell des
Stadt-Andersmachens in Berlin an?
FS: Häuser, Quartiere oder auch gesamtstädtische
Strukturen sind dann sinnvoll, wenn sie soziale Teilhabe
ermöglichen und im besten Falle aktiv hervorbringen. Es
sollte keine Orte geben, die bestimmten Gruppen den Zugang
verweigern. Das allseits bekannte Versagen der
rechtlichen Rahmenbedingungen hat in Kombination mit
der steigenden Nachfrage nach innerstädtischen Räumen
und teils skrupellosen Geschäftemachereien zu
degenerierten Städten und durchkommerzialisierten
Lebenswelten geführt, in denen einkommensschwache
Menschen und „Randgruppen” keinen Platz mehr haben.
Daher muss dort, wo neu gebaut wird, konsequent gegengesteuert
werden. Neue Bauprojekte sollten der Spekulation
und dem freien Marktgeschehen entzogen sein.
Nur so können wir langfristig gesicherte bezahlbare
Räume schaffen. Neue Orte sollten zudem die Werte
des freiheitlichen und selbstbestimmten Miteinanders in
sich tragen: eine Antwort auf den Zerfall des sozialen
Zusammenhalts.
‘Participating in participation’ is one of our main discourse
themes. What does it mean to you?
FS: Increasingly, it is less about participation and more
about real cooperation and involvement. A useful distinction
to make would be between forms of civic engagement
– information, consultation, cooperation, and autonomy.
Good projects develop when there is cooperation between
politics, administration, and community, and when specific
ideas can be implemented through self-government.
How do you see community empowerment being made sustainable,
in terms of cities and urban development? How do we
achieve participatory processes that function beyond special
interests?
FS: We are committed to developing a new, up-to-date organisation
by shifting our perspective and putting new
phenomena in context. Ideally, the municipality would
have as its goal the implementation of socially sustainable
targets – through housing projects, neighbourhood development,
and city-wide frameworks – and would be conscious
of the fact that the implementation of this will be
undertaken in a ‘hostile environment’ where the legal, economic,
and political climate are antithetical to social sustainability.
In this model, market mechanisms are to be
negated through socially sustainable initiatives by innovative
property developers – cooperatives, foundations,
housing associations such as the nationwide ‘Miethäuser
Syndikat’ (Apartment Housing Syndicate), and publicly-owned
housing organisations.
Neighbourhoods are another powerful category; a local
community that wants not just to have a say in its future,
but also to actively determine it. Property development projects
can be opportunities to promote common understanding.
Over the past ten years, social movements have increasingly
emerged as ‘right to the city’ urban movements. Significantly,
there are both site-specific movements (e.g. Kotti
& Co and the Haus der Statistik Initiative, both calling for
the de-privatisation of large buildings in Berlin), and also
initiatives that address real estate policy. They are all socio-politically
oriented, have the capacity to build a large
network of partners and supporters, and are able to engage
in policy negotiation with strategic finesse.
In the case of the ‘Haus der Statistik’, a significant segment of the
movement have now become developers. Who curates the use
of this space?
EG: An initiative called ZUsammenKUNFT is responsible
for keeping the planning process transparent, open, and
accountable.
What sort of impact is the new ‘Haus der Statistik’ organisation
going to have on the administration that is supposed to move
there?
EG: There is going to be a new town hall for Mitte, in a newly-built
site including spaces for the municipal council,
which will make Haus der Statistik an important location
for local democracy. All street-level areas are allocated to
occupants that are community-interest oriented, and have
public appeal. The goal is a well-connected, open, interlinked
ground-floor area that connects the entire quarter.
Overall, in addition to space for public administration and
around 250 apartments, we hope to create 25,000 square
metres of floor area for socio-cultural and other initiatives
– including some with a commercial focus.
Given these developments, what is your vision for a Berlin model
of urban development? What are the core ideas – the key building
blocks that you are aiming for, to make the fair-city model
different in Berlin?
FS: In today’s society, buildings, neighbourhoods, and even
city-wide structures are particularly meaningful when they
enable and ideally actively promote social participation.
The starting point is allowing access to everyone. Because
of a well-known flaw in the legal framework, combined
with increasing demand for inner-city spaces and unscrupulous
business deals, cities are degenerating into commercialised
environments, where low-income and ‘marginalised’
groups have no place. Resolute action must be
taken wherever new developments are happening. New
construction projects should be completely separate from
speculation and free market activity.
If the city is to remain
open to people of all income
groups, Berlin must help itself.
EPHRAIM GOTHE
FESTIVAL CENTRE
JUN 14
Florian Schmidt, @ panel discussion
‘New Coalitions for the
Cooperative City?’
Photo: Lena Frank @lenasberlin
Doppelt bezahlt: 2017 hat die Gewobag das Neue Kreuzberger Zentrum für 56.500.000 Euro zurückgekauft. /
The ‘Neues Kreuzberger Zentrum’ – bought back for 56,500,000 euros by public housing association Gewobag in 2017.
HUB
JUN 22
Angela McRobbie @ discussion
‘Making a Living in the New Culture
Industries‘, Berlinische Galerie
JUN 25
‘Those Who Build, Make Politics’,
panel discussion @ Swiss Embassy
MAKECITY OPEN
JUN 20
‘Die Alte Münze am Molkenmarkt’,
tour @ Alte Münze