Ecological district development
(Berlin)
This project has been put into the archive. The project details will not be updated anymore.
Source: STADT UND LAND
At the time of the German re-unification, Hellersdorf was still a relatively young area in construction and administration terms and also featured a particularly young population. Approximately 100.000 residents with an average age of only 28 years lived in around 43.000 “prefab apartments”. A full third of the residents was less than 18 years old. The large housing estate had not been completed before the fall of the GDR government. Although most of the residential buildings, nursery schools, schools and shops had been built, almost all the development areas still featured unfinished building sites. The planned district centre had not even been started on, the residential environment was mainly wasteland. This is the background against which the ecologically oriented district development was promoted and evaluated between 1992 and 1994 as a model project in the research area “Urban Design Advancement of Large Development Areas in the New Federal States” within the federal research programme “Experimental Housing and Urban Development”. The strategy of developing the industrially constructed large housing estate “Hellersdorf” in an ecological fashion was recognized as a best practice project by the “Habitat” conference in 1996.
Source: STADT UND LAND
The unfinished status of the new housing estate offered an opportunity for an ecologically oriented development. Jointly with the housing association “Wohnungsbaugesellschaft Hellersdorf mbH” (WoGeHe), the Berlin Senate Administration for Construction, Housing and Transport developed a project approach the realization of which started in 1992. The project evaluation was based on an assessment of the ecological point of departure, which was used as a comprehensive information base for future district development measures and projects. This rudimental assessment was followed by a resident opinion survey. The survey provided insights into environmental behaviour and the willingness to participate. The WoGeHe, with 38.000 apartments the district’s largest landlord, played a significant role in the realization of such projects. But the ecologically oriented design of the large housing estate would not have been possible without the Hellersdorf residents. The Senate Adminstration and WoGeHe hence opted for large-scale involvement right from the start. Residents were kept informed on the progress of the development extensively and regularly via planning newspapers, press articles, newspaper advertisements, posters, etc. Involvement committees on various spatial levels served to sensitize residents to developments and particularly to ecological issues within the district. The resulting, extensive resident involvement facilitated the development of realization-oriented concepts and projects for environment-compatible refuse disposal, open space development, urban periphery design and ecological consultancy for current investment plans. Particularly the private associations and action groups engaged in nature and environmental protection became important partners in numerous projects. The „Environment Forum" thus rapidly developed into an important district institution for resident information and the dialogue between all the parties involved. An "Eco-Mobile", i.e. a mobile information centre, could not only be present at various locations, but also reach individuals in the locality. A regularly held „Environment Event“ served to mediate information and discussions on ecological subjects in an entertaining fashion. At the time, the comprehensive refuse concept featuring separate waste collection and removal of bulky refuse did not yet play an important role. These building blocks have largely been established since then. Further ecological measures realized in addition to this cover a broad range, from using environment-compatible building materials and recycling demolition components via using regenerative energies up to local rain water seepage, area unsealing, restoring water courses to their natural state and multi-use areas. One of the outstanding, environmentally relevant projects in the Hellersdorf dictrict development was the ecological model refurbishment of an initial 196 apartments in the northern Kienberg quarter, the results of which provided the basis for redevelopming the quarter’s remaining 1.200 apartments. Further achievements to be mentioned include the ecological redesign of schoolyards and residential courtyards, for example in the "Schweriner Hof" and the 9th primary school, as well as the development of the regional green area "Wuhletal".
1981 |Start of construction work on the large housing estate 1986 |Foundation of the urban district Hellersdorf 1991 |Start of the improvement measures concerning the residential environment 1992 to 1994 |Model project in the Experimental Housing and Urban Development programme 1992 |Establishment of the environment forum 1993 to 1995 |Urban design outline plan 1993 |Start of the extensive structural modernization 1996 |Selection as best practice project for the World Settlement Conference HABITAT II 1998 |Start of the ecological pilot project in the "Kienberg" quarter 1998 |Town hall construction in the new district centre 2000 |Establishment of a nature conservation centre
Source: STADT UND LAND
Source: STADT UND LAND
Source: STADT UND LAND
Although various basic conditions in housing demand and housing stock employment have changed in the meantime, the consistent ecological orientation of the district-related concepts and processes within the model project “Berlin-Hellersdorf” can still be described as pioneering to this day. District development was recognized as a comprehensive and area-related, all pervasive challenge that needs to be addressed in all sector-, section- and process-related decisions and measures. Not least owing to the broad involvement of residents, the “Hellersdorf” project demonstrated early on that structural and technical housing stock modernization measures and an extensive landscaping of open and built areas can be realized quickly and on a large scale, at an acceptable cost and in an ecologically effective manner. Various pilot projects have hence assumed model status for other large housing estates early on.
The project site is to be found at postal code: 12619 – city / town: Berlin - street: Auerbacher Ring on the homepage http://www.berlin.de/stadtplan/_html/index.html
The projekt site ist to be found at postal code: 12619 - town: Berlin - street: Auerbacher Ring.
Record inserted on 05.04.2005 by the Federal Institute for Research on Building, Urban Affairs and Spatial Development (BBSR) within the Federal Office for Building and Regional Planning (BBR).
Last update: 19.08.2008
