BERLIN, GERMANY House of Statistics

When the city centre of Berlin became subject to increasing commercial pressures during the last decade, the tradition of activism and civic engagement, which has defined the city since the 1970s, created the basis for new experiments in urban planning and architecture. To secure low cost areas for diversified neighbourhoods in the long term, civil society initiatives and local governments started to work together to probe new participatory planning instruments, financing models, and operating schemes.
The most elaborate and advanced participatory development to date is the “House of Statistics,” a former East German administrative complex in the heart of Berlin. Initially, it was a civil society initiative, which promoted the idea of creating space for artists and refugees in the now empty buildings. The City of Berlin bought the property and started a joint development process with five equal partners. They comprise the original initiative, which evolved into a planning cooperative, a municipal housing company, the municipal real estate company and the urban planning authorities of the city and borough. As a result, the urban development concept was commissioned and developed with broad public involvement. Currently the five partners are conducting an investigation into governance structures to develop the project.