Together with Robert Burghardt we had planned the workshop days on Monday and Tuesday. While we visited different townhouse projects in Mitte, Friedrichshain and Prenzlauer Berg and spoke to Sociologist Andrei Holm about the different waves of Gentrification on Monday, we spent time in Kreuzberg on Tuesday. Shaped and still strongly reflecting the political developments of the 1980's in which the tenant's movement in Kreuzberg developed the soft city renewal, Kreuzberg still provides over many remnants of its protest-inspired past: Houses and musea, initiatives, bars and clubs. In the striking gap between city development supported by the state's social housing policies in Kreuzberg in the 80's and the developments in gentrified Prenzlauer Berg, especially the role of the city's policy becomes apparent. Starting from the principles of the gentle city renewal as documented and promoted in the 1984 / 1987 IBA (International Building Exhibition) I tried to address some of those measures, principles or regulations which could have prevented the large-scale displacement of former inhabitants, the sky-rocketing of rents and the other effects of gentrification one witnesses in Prenzlauer Berg today.
Images have been taken from the IBA catalogue '84 '87 and the book "Stattbau"
Poster 1) By means of careful gentrification twenty percent of the displaced will return to Prenzlauer Berg by 2015
Poster 2) The fixed renting prices and successively increasing tenant's rights strenghthen the stance of resident citizens and protect them from displacement
Poster 3) Careful upgrading, which enhances trust, assures that tenants will recognize their quarters beyond the year 2015
