The cautious re-novation of Berlin's Kreuzberg district

Abstract

The International Exposition of Architecture and Habitat 1987 (IBA) is West Berlin turned on these theme-The City as Place to Live in- Rescue the Ruined City», one of the constituent aims of this IBA being the rehabilitation of the vast apartment blocks in the Kreuzberg district in the city's north east, this to the end of bettering living conditions there. This paper describes the arguements had as between those who favoured the demolition of the buildings in question as against such as wished to conserve them and with them the «feel» of the district. These disputes gave way to the struggles of the «Instandbesetzer» (squatters in these buildings) all of wich gave rise to the concept of «behutsamen Stadterneuerung» which was to have world-wide reverberations. This concept could be summed up under the twelve premises of-Cautious Renovation». Here the step by step working technique of rehabilitation is laid out, which is to say the «from without to within» proce(ture by which those dwelling in the place play a decisive role with their collaboration in the project. The solving of social infra-structures problems is also gone into, this being here achieved despite the near saturation population density the district suffers from. The paper is rounded off with a recognition of the co-operation of both native and foreing architects in the reaching here of a goal of such an extra-ordinary and vital degree of a esthetic achievement.