SMALL STEPS IN BERLIN KREUZBERG

A biographical approach to planning in the "Graue Laus" housing complex

Project financed by:

  • IKEA Foundation

 

Project partners:

  • Niloufar Tajeri, Dina Dorothea Falbe


The project focuses on "Graue Laus," a social housing project by Werner Düttmann in Berlin-Kreuzberg. In following the guideline of the smallest possible planning intervention, we will identify possibilities for a careful renewal process concerning the apartments and the complex at large. It is the idea to develop a concrete, transferable planning methodology that takes the "biography" of the building and of its inhabitants as entry point. In this sense, we will combine a historical approach with qualitative research methods and architectural analysis.

The project reconstructs the planning history as well as the controversial debates related to the housing complexes’ genealogy. We will intersect this approach with biographical experiences and the everyday life of residents. Such interlinking of macro- and micro-historical perspectives will lead to the development of planning ideas for apartments, open spaces, stairwells, etc. Thereby we follow the principle of the smallest possible, "biographical" planning intervention. It is the aim to test a transdisciplinary research and planning process in order to set impulses for resident-oriented redevelopment in other housing complexes. 

 

Project period: since 2020 

© Niloufar Tajeri

6th Report on Urban Renewal in Berlin, 1968 (FHXB Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg Museum)

6th Report on Urban Renewal in Berlin, 1968 (FHXB Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg Museum)

Picture in: Kramer, Kreuzberg 1968-2013, Nicolai, Berlin 2013

© Niloufar Tajeri