Any future “plan” for Berlin has to be a plan for a city in retrenchement expansion but since the total surface of the city is finite and given, and can, for obvious political reasons, not be reduced, it follows that the city will have to develop strategies for the controlled decrease expansion of its density in order not to lose to increment its over-all urbanity”.
O.M. Ungers, R. Koolhaas, The city in the city, Berlin a green Archipelago, Lars
Müller Publishers, Berlin, 2010
Introduction
Currently, one billion people inhabit spontaneous/informal settlements and, according to UN-habitat agency’s estimate, three billion people will inhabit spontaneous/informal settlements until 2030. This situation will involve not only cities from the third world but also capital cities of the industrialized world.
Berlin’s social, urban and political history make it an appropriate city to plan urban strategies and to discover the guidelines which drive the expansion of our cities. A city in expansion It is estimated that 27,500 new inhabitants will enter Berlin in search of an occupation each year. Furthermore, in 2030 there will be 250,000 new inhabitants in the city, making its total population around 3.8 million people. In addition to this, Berlin welcomes more than 150,000 international students each year, however the city currently only has space to host 9500 of those students. In 2012, 24 million tourists and visited Berlin. Finally, the city has a high, (and growing number) of Refugees and Asylum seekers. This can be seen by the three-hundred percent increase of Refugees and Asylum seekers from 2012-2013.
Resilient Slums
The concept that we have created is to develop the stations of the S-bahn line into new organized villages. This project is named ‘Resilient Slums’. Berlin’s metro system provides a highly efficient method of moving throughout the city. Residential space close to Berlin’s central metro stations are often expensive, due to their convenient locations. Consequently those with little capital often have to commute from less desirable and accessible areas of the city. Our structure signifies the giant step Berlin has made since the fall of the Berlin wall to reduce segregation and promote an inclusive and modernized urban environment.
Study case: Friedrichstrasse bahnhof
Friedrichstrasse bahnhof is an critic node in Berlin railway net. Situated close to the city center next to the Spree river, it is made by bricks and covered with a glass and steel roof. Taking inspiration from the temporary scaffoldings, the proposal design a light steel structure above the station. This structure is thought to be easily built and dismantle and it welcomes a self growing community where every single person can safely and affordably build and develop their own home.
The settlement consists in capsules destinated to give accommodation service and public spaces for the community living in the slum and to the all new citizens of Berlin. The resilient slum is a flexible, changeable, variable and unstable system that change its shape according to the request of accommodation units.
