Urban landscape Brandenburg-Berlin 2070 – Contour of a Transition Society
2nd Prize
Author
KOPPERROTH / SMAQ / Alex Wall Location: Berlin / Berlin / Cambridge (USA) www.kopperroth.de / www.smaq.net / www.alexwall.com Team: Evelina Faliagka, Moritz Maria Karl, Dominik Renner Landscape architecture: Dipl.-Ing. Stefan Tischer, freelance landscape architect Other specialist planning: Office MMK – Urban Technologies
Sub-area 1:
At the edges of the settlement radials, areas are divided into small parcels to promote a mix of uses. This not only stimulate agriculture, but spatially defines the populated areas. The parcels structure a dense network of paths and create parklike landscapes. Existing settlements are supplemented, and new development areas for housing, recreational activities, and energy facilities are set in a spatially defined environment. This in-between landscape can be used as an experimental space for organic farming, decentralised energy supply, and alternative settlement areas, which simultaneously counteracts urban sprawl. Special places are marked and represented in the form of zeros, or circles. As a result, individual uses such as small settlements, agricultural businesses, and energy systems can be placed in the landscape.
Sub-area 2:
Inspired by the spatial arrangement of allotment gardens, ‘parcels’ measuring 150 x 150 metres are defined. Each of these clusters can be divided and expanded to accommodate different uses. The supply of energy and water is decentralised and is managed through collective self-government. 50 per cent of each parcel must be cultivated agriculturally to maintain the character of a park landscape. The parcels are enclosed by hollows and depressions, which ensure the retention and infiltration of surface water along the path system. The planting of trees and hedges creates natural corridors that improve the microclimate. The outlined grid depicts the network of public paths. The parcels are awarded in the form of heritable leaseholds based on concept-based applications. This land-use concept promotes social and ecological forms of living with the aim of establishing a ‘transition society’ for more open and flexible lifestyles.
Sub-area 3:
There are allotment gardens with low structural density along main access roads such as the A114 and the suburban railway line between Französisches Buchholz and Blankenfelde (including the Blankenfelde railway station and a new possible railway station on Bucherstrasse). These areas are suitable for new developments, particularly since technical infrastructure and public transport are already available. Here, the concept is centred on orderly densification along the radials. Existing landscape elements such as avenues, alluvial meadows, and the Panke River are renaturalised. The desired mixed-use environment, which includes housing, office spaces, manufacturing, and logistics centres, generates a variety of building typologies that allow high structural density. In the areas that transition to the historic green villages, the design places housing estates with single-family homes and integrates a small part of the allotment garden settlements into the landscape area.
Entrant‘s description
Berlin is growing, and with it, the surrounding areas in Brandenburg. Over the past century, Brandenburg and Berlin have become increasingly interconnected due to developments along the transport axes that make up the rays of the star-shaped settlement structure. It makes sense to further develop the Berlin-Brandenburg metropolitan region along existing infrastructural lines and arteries and to consolidate the star-shaped settlement structure. However, a new perspective and a future-oriented economic and social vision are needed. To this end, we must strengthen the Brandenburg regions surrounding Berlin in response to the dynamic expansion of Berlin’s centre. The development model for the metropolitan region should be based on three initiatives. First, we need to regenerate the landscape as an ecological environment, social milieu, and economic force. Second, we need to create an interface between the city and countryside. This interface must be marked by a legible outline within the star-shaped settlement structure; and it must serve as an ‘ecotone’, ‘edge habitat’, or ‘transition area’. Third, we need to interconnect the radial axes with green areas and water and link the settlement rays with orbital streets surrounding them, thus developing the star into a network.
Our strategy of gradually converting Berlin-Brandenburg into an urbanised-landscaped region is based on expanding and activating existing landscapes and infrastructural structures and reanimating latent existing ones. The strategy also involves introducing new innovative uses and leaving enough flexible spaces for unforeseen uses. A sustainable metropolis can only be developed on the basis of the landscape or countryside as a starting point. For Berlin and Brandenburg, the typical landscape structures include waterways, tree-lined avenues, ‘Angerdöfer’ (villages built around a central village green), and fields. The various terrains, soils, water structures, local climates, and habitats are the basis for both the diversification of landscape structures and structural development strategies. The Schmettau map series includes historical ordnance survey maps of the area and offers valuable clues for activating the landscape. Densification measures should occur along the existing, often well-equipped infrastructures, particularly the arteries along railway and tram lines. The existing access network composed of historic tree-lined avenues is well suited to accommodate new forms of micromobility (on-demand buses, shared mobility, e-bikes). This creates a close-knit development network between less densely populated areas. Motorway feeder roads lying within the outer ring road become expressways and serve to transport goods, thus supporting inner-city production sites and factories. Travellers heading towards the city centre with private modes of transport from the surrounding areas and outskirts can transfer to the suburban train on the outer ring. A socially just and open society requires spatial and economic freedom in which diverse lifestyles and integration models can be tested and practised. Concept-based land-allocation procedures, designed to prevent the appreciation of real estate value, serve to promote cooperative, non-profit housing and make development projects accessible to smaller players. We illustrate our strategy of gradually converting the capital region into a landscaped-urbanised area with proposals for three specific locations. There are three main areas of focus: regional parks, new housing construction, and the transformation of the rays of the star-shaped settlement structure. Here, we specifically explore the settlements along the ray composed of Pankow, Buch, Bernau, and Barnim. A socially just and open society requires spatial and economic freedom in which diverse lifestyles and integration models can be tested and practised. Concept-based land-allocation procedures, designed to prevent the appreciation of real estate value, serve to promote cooperative, non-profit housing and make development projects accessible to smaller players. We illustrate our strategy of gradually converting the capital region into a landscaped-urbanised area with proposals for three specific locations. There are three main areas of focus: regional parks, new housing construction, and the transformation of the rays of the star-shaped settlement structure. Here, we specifically explore the settlements along the ray composed of Pankow, Buch, Bernau, and Barnim.
Mosaic of Contextual and Inherent Diversity The contour is formed by the contextual arrangement of five urban and rural elements that form a spatial mosaic: nature reserves; forest clearings; housing and regenerative microfarming; new urban areas; and special-use structures, large-scale projects, and energy infrastructure. These building blocks contribute to the densification of the star-shaped settlement structure and also strengthen the rural areas of Brandenburg, in part by reintroducing nature. Depending on the location, the mosaic can promote urban development or be a site of innovative agriculture and exemplary natural strategies. This is the strength of the contour: each building block consists of a variety of lifestyles, forest ecosystems, and biotopes.
Barnim Regional Park (Bernau-Werneuchten) In addition to the existing nature parks, four special park landscapes – regional parks – are to be established, two of which are already well developed. The new regional park between Bernau and Werneuchen will function as an incubator, stimulating the landscape transformation process. The Schmettau map series provides a point of reference for the reconstruction and development measures, as the microtopography and soil conditions have remained largely unchanged. These natural areas are to be expanded exponentially in relation to the current state (approximately by a factor of ten). In addition, existing forests are to be gradually returned to their original condition or repurposed for land-use management or – as natural parks and nature preserves – integrated into the surroundings.
Contour Mosaic, Focus: New Housing in the Relevant ‘Mosaic Stone’ The contour consists of five different urban and rural building blocks and creates an ecologically, economically, and socially diverse living environment by offering a mix of new housing developments and introducing new flora. The example used here is the area between Buch and Schwanebeck, which is crossed by the A10 motorway.
New Residential Construction This mosaic stone establishes an experimental field that promotes ecological and social living spaces as well as diversity. As an ‘edge habitat’, it can accommodate various lifestyles within a parcel and promotes a decentralised, collective method of supplying energy and water. The structure and scale of the settlement is based on the dimensions that are required for agricultural self-sufficiency. The average parcel measures around 150 × 150 metres, which can be expanded or subdivided according to location and use. Existing landscape and building structures are either integrated or delineate the structure. Each parcel is surrounded by a public network of roads that can be flexibly assigned to different types of traffic. Mixed-use constellations are to be ensured by an application process in which the applicant’s socio-ecological innovation concept is stated. The ensuing diversity in lifestyles will enable new qualities: economic construction methods; mutual care; carpooling; diverse public spaces; and innovations in agricultural-ecological undertakings. The parcels are leased and not sold.
Lifelines, focus: redesigning a section of a radial street within Berlin; redesigning a section of an arm of the star-shaped settlement (Brandenburg). The sub-area considered as an example lies in northern Pankow near Französisches Buchholz and Blankenburg. The development builds on the historical landscape structure with its tree-lined avenues, ditches, and villages and includes more recent additions, such as the motorway and the suburban railway. The redesign is based on the principle that existing and developed infrastructures in this area, which is characterised by low density, can and should support more residents and activities in a growing metropolitan region. The radial roads are integrated into a network of various arteries and forms in which the waterways, motorway, and suburban railway become supporting radials. This network constitutes the arteries of the star-shaped settlement structure and links the contour’s mosaics with the star’s interior. Along the arteries, between the arteries, and especially where transport routes intersect, higher densities are created through densification, the formation of public spaces, city projects, and the promotion of local and regional trade and production. The existing transport infrastructures become their ‘lifelines’.
