For What it’s Worth: Densification at any Cost?
Melanie Garcia, Jörn Gartenbach, Anna Golmann, Petra Heber, Malte Hirsbrunner, Sophie Marthe, Lixuan Xie, Yanqui Yao
Protopia
Despite numerous calls for more mixed use within the city, even recent housing projects by the city of Berlin remain largely monofunctional and typologically homogenous.
The current densification project in the Michelangelostraße neighbourhood presents a perfect opportunity to create a new ’production + housing’ typology; harnessing the opportunity presented by ‘production 4.0’ to reintroduce manufacturing as a core component of urban fabric and city life.
Trialling this typology within the city’s housing densification project at Michelangelostr would simultaneously address the monofunctionality of both the adjacent housing stock and community structures from the DDR housing project of the 1960s and ‘70s. It is critical that this densification project enhance the quality-of-life of the existing residents, while leading the neighbourhood into the future. The inclusion of local small-scaled manufacturing and production can address these shortcomings, through the opportunities for innovation, social interaction and diversity they bring.
